Little Angel of Mine
by JeremyX
Summary: When Aelita gets a call from her dad in the night, she rushes to Lyoko, only to find XANA had trapped her. Jeremy brings her back from the Schyphozoa's grip, but she had part of her genetic code stolen by XANA before Jeremy brought her back. When she materialized, she had shrunk to 9cm tall! Will Jeremy and the gang restore her proper size and stop XANA's new plan? Lyoko GT! R&R!
1. Chapter 1: A Call in the Night

**A/N: Some of you may be familiar with this genre, but if not, I suggest looking it up on deviantART.**

**Code Lyoko (C) 2002-2013 MoonScoop. I, the author, make no profit from this. Please support the official release!**

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Little Angel of Mine

Chapter 1 – A Call in the Night

The moon hung high and the stars twinkled bright in the night sky of Paris as Aelita Schaeffer slept soundly in her dorm room at Kadic Academy, completely undisturbed. Her normally vivid nightmares about her past life and her present friends would have kept her awake all night long. But tonight, she was in a blissful slumber that she hoped would never end.

Sadly, she had hoped in vain.

A methodic beeping noise came from her computer on her desk, and she wearily opened her eyes and started to move. She slowly pulled back the covers, crawled out of her bed, and sleepily walked over to the desk chair. She plopped down in it and noticed an e-mail message pop up on her screen. The message read, "To Aelita, Sender Unknown."

"Huh?" she raised her eyebrow. "Who could this be?"

She opened the message, and it read, "Dear Aelita, I know of your struggles with trying to free your classmate William from the control of XANA. I have a program that could help you bring him back. Come to the factory at once and go to Sector 5. See you there, honey.

F.H."

"F.H.?" she gasped, knowing those initials all too well. "Daddy?"

Quickly, she threw off her night shirt and got into a fresh set of her day clothes, and sneaked out of the window of the girls' dormitory. She then dashed through the park to the secret entrance to the factory. When she got to the spot, she removed the manhole cover and climbed down the staircase that led to the sewer system. She grabbed her scooter and rode down the alleyway to the factory. Once she got to the stairs, she locked her scooter next to the railing and climbed up the ladder.

Aelita raced over to the opening to the building, jumped onto one of the ropes and slid down it to the factory floor. She then dashed to the elevator and pressed the large red button. Once the door shut, the elevator descended to the supercomputer mainframe room, where she sat down in the chair, put on the headset, and looked at the screen.

"Daddy?" she said into the microphone. "Are you there?"

"I'm here, Aelita," came the voice of Franz Hopper, Aelita's father and the creator of Lyoko and XANA. "I'm in Sector 5, and I'm ready to give you the code once you get here."

"But couldn't you just input the code from there without me?" she asked.

"Unfortunately, I can't," Franz replied. "There's some kind of interference that is keeping me from accessing the mainframe without someone being in a tower here on Lyoko."

"Really?"She raised her eyebrow. "I've never heard of that before."

"I'm dying to see you again," he added, with a tone of weariness. "You've no idea of how long I've wanted and waited to see you."

"Oh, daddy…" she said, her eyes now watering. "I'll be there right away." She started the three minute auto-virtualization sequence and climbed down the ladder to the scanner room. She stepped into one, the door closed, and light engulfed her as she was virtualized into Lyoko.

When she dropped into Sector 5 of Lyoko, she noticed that things were eerily calm. None of XANA's monsters were visible anywhere around her. She even virtualized right in front of a tower. She stared up at the tall white structure before furrowing her brow.

"Something's wrong," she said. "This is way too easy."

As if on cue, a swath of monsters composed of two dozen Kankerlats, five Bloks, three Krabes, two Tarantulas, and two Megatanks appeared out of nowhere. A shriek came out from above, and a Manta flew down from the ceiling. What was so special about this Manta was that it was darker in color than other Mantas, and there was a very familiar figure riding atop it.

"William!" she gasped as the possessed boy leapt from his mount and onto the floor. "What did you do to Dad?"

"Your father was never here," William replied in his warped voice. "I lured you here to extract your data!"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

William closed his eyes for a second, and said, "I've been dying to see you Aelita. Come to the factory at once." Aelita gasped when she heard her father's voice come from William's mouth.

"How did you do that?" she gasped.

"I took precautions in case I would need my creator's appearance," William said in a deeper voice.

"XANA," Aelita said, knowing that this was the demonic AI speaking through William. "What do you mean by what you said about 'extracting my data'?"

"I will extract your data so that I may enter the real world with this boy as my eternal slave and with a body of my own!" he shouted, thrusting his sword into the air. "Schyphozoa! Come forth!"

Suddenly, Aelita's heart skipped a beat as the terrifying jellyfish like monster came down from above and thrust its tentacles at the helpless Lyoko Warrior. She tried to run away, but a blast from several monsters prevented her escape. She could only look as the floating monster wrapped most of its translucent tentacles around Aelita and placed three of them near her head. When the monster started extracting data, the tentacles all began glowing red, and Aelita began to shiver. No one had even noticed that the tower she was facing began to glow the same shade of red.

===CODE LYOKO===

Meanwhile, a kilometer away, I, Jeremy Belpois, had just finished another program that would help my friends on Lyoko. I wiped the sweat off my brow before my entered the last string of data into the code and saved my progress. I checked my watch and noticed the time was around twelve minutes until midnight.

"Aelita's going to kill me for staying up this late," I said silently. "But I have to do this, or else XANA will gain the power to doom us all."

As soon as I said this, a loud beeping noise came from my computer. I gasped, as I knew it was the Lyoko Tower Scan at work. It picked up the trace of an activated tower in Sector 5.

"Oh no!" I gasped. "I've got to get Aelita!"

I quickly picked up my cell phone and dialed Aelita's number. It started to ring and I nervously tapped my fingers on my desk. After seconds of ringing on her side, her answering message kicked in, and I hung up.

"Why isn't she answering?" I asked myself. I glanced back to the screen and noticed something new on it. This was something that almost made my heart stop.

"Oh dear God," I gasped. "She's on Lyoko! What does she think she's doing?" Another look at the screen elicited another yelp. "The Schyphozoa has got Aelita! I need to get there right now!"

Without changing, I quickly put on one of my night jackets and a pair of shoes, and quietly opened the window to my dorm room. I climbed out the window and scaled down the dorm building, and made a mad dash to the manhole entrance to the factory. I noticed Aelita's scooter was missing, and I hissed as I unhooked my own scooter and rode through the sewer pipes to the factory. Once I got there, I saw Aelita's scooter parked next to the ladder. I locked my scooter next to hers, and climbed the ladder to the bridge to the factory's island.

I slid down the rope and instead of going to the elevator, climbed down the stairs next to the elevator into the supercomputer mainframe room. I raced to the chair and jumped into it, quickly putting on the headset.

"Aelita!" I shouted, looking at the screen. "Can you hear me?!"

After hearing nothing, I began to panic. "Wait," I said, starting to calm down. "The Schyphozoa's got Aelita, so she can't reply. I have to pull the materialization code before it's too late!"

I rapidly pressed several keys and hit the large 'enter' key. I looked at the screen as Aelita's data card disappeared from the screen, showing that she was materializing. I then ripped the headset out of my ear, jumped out of the chair, and dashed down the stairs to the scanner room.

==CODE LYOKO==

On Lyoko, William looked on as Aelita's body faded away. He cursed under his breath, but then a dark shadow appeared behind him. "Your mission was not a complete failure, William Dunbar. We have enough of what we need. In a few moments, you and I will enter the real world. You will retain your powers and you will have a new human body to rule the humans along with me!"

==CODE LYOKO==

"Aelita?" I called out. "Are you alright?"

I hit the floor of the scanner room and ran to the humming scanner as the door to it opened and it hissed out a cloud of steam. When I looked inside, I gasped because she was nowhere to be seen. I instinctively thrust my hands into the scanner and waved them around, wondering if she had turned invisible, which was something that XANA had done to her once before. I stuck my head into the scanner and looked up, finding nothing, and then looked down. It was when I looked down that I nearly fainted.

I saw Aelita passed out on the floor of the scanner, in her day clothes, but she was still not the same as when I last saw her. She would look perfectly normal to the casual observer if they didn't know that they were looking through a magnifying glass. To me, she had somehow shrunk to nine centimeters tall. My breathing now became extremely rapid as my gaze darted over my girlfriend's miniature form.

"No way," I stuttered, shaken. "How…how did…what…why is…how do I…what's going on here?"

I nervously moved my head down to her now-small body and hovered my ear over her chest. I heard her heartbeat, and sighed, relieved. Taking a deep breath, I reached down into the scanner and scooped up Aelita in my hand, standing up once I did so. I began hyperventilating to keep myself from going crazy.

"I'm holding Aelita in my hand," I said to myself. "I'm holding Aelita in my hand. I'm holding Aelita in my hand!" No matter how many times I ran it through my head, it made no sense at all! I took the elevator up to the mainframe room, and sat in the chair, placing Aelita down on an empty panel on the keyboard while I started typing. I would need both of my hands for this.

"Come on, XANA," I said. "What did you do?" I looked at the current data on the computer, and gasped. Somehow, the Schyphozoa had drained a part of her digital genetic code from her that had affected her materialization. "Okay," I said to myself, "how do I get her back to normal?" I glanced at my watch and then slapped my forehead. "Oh man! It's almost midnight! Jim will be patrolling the dorms, and he'll notice the open window from my room! I've got to get back there quick!"

I removed the earpiece, picked up Aelita again, and rode the elevator up to the main floor. Rather than take the rope, I placed Aelita in my jacket's breast pocket and climbed the ladder to the bridge. Checking to make sure that Aelita was secure in my pocket, I ran to the manhole and climbed down into the sewers, folding Aelita's scooter and slinging it over my back while unlocking my scooter and riding back to the school. I slipped past Jim, who was patrolling the grounds, and climbed into my window, shutting it behind me. I gasped for breath before reaching back into my pocket and gently taking Aelita out.

I stared at her tiny body, now in both of my hands, for a long time, still unsure if I wanted to or could believe that this was happening. I instinctively thought I should try to wake her up, but the thought of seeing her face full of fear at my form, which no doubt would be enormous to her, kept me from doing what my mind knew could not be avoided. So I gently placed her on my bed pillow and sat on my bed, too exhausted to try to work this out.

"Maybe Aelita has a point about me not staying up to late," I said to myself. "I don't feel too good and I can't fall asleep." I leaned back onto my bed, and I pulled the covers off, slid inside, and covered myself up. Once tucked in, I took off my glasses, placing them on my nightstand behind me, and turned my head to face Aelita.

I reached out to her, my hand hovering over her body, larger than she was. It took a lot to keep my breathing stable as I touched her cheek with my index finger. As I did this, I realized my other fingers were brushing her hair and back. I immediately drew my hand back, as I had no idea why I was just petted my girlfriend. While I pondered this, I noticed Aelita's body begin to move. I drew in a sharp breath as she began to move even more, rubbing her eyes and starting to sit up. She stretched her arms and yawned, which I thought was kind of cute for some unknown reason, and got to her feet, stumbling slightly.

"Huh?" she said, in a soft, silent tone that reflected her diminished size. "This isn't the scanner…" She then looked around her, confused at her new surroundings. "What? Where am I?" After looking down at the pillow, she finally, slowly, turned around and up to face me. I kept as straight a face as I could, but Aelita looked like she was going to scream.

"Aelita, it's me!" I quietly shouted, not daring to raise my voice for fear of it hurting her. I had read enough books to know that much. At the mention of my name, she gasped again and covered her mouth with her hands.

"J-Jeremy?" she gasped. "Is it…is it really you?"

"Yes," I nodded, sitting up slowly so not to scare her.

"But…but…" she stammered, trembling as I sat up, "how is this possible? You…you're…gigantic!"

"Maybe to you," I said, "but I'm not the one who's grown, you're the one who shrunk."

"How?"

"When XANA attacked you," I replied, "he stole some of your data that made up a part of your body. I don't know how or why he did it, but he did do it. He's the reason you shrunk when I rematerialized you. The tower is still activated, but XANA's not doing anything, so I believe it's safe for now."

"There's an activated tower?" she said. "Shouldn't you call Ulrich or Odd or Yumi?"

"To reiterate," I retorted, "XANA is not doing any noticeable activity, so we're okay."

"How can you be so calm?" she asked. "What about me? What am I going to do?"

I leaned in a little closer. "Aelita, I promise you that I will do whatever it takes to get you back to normal, but it's going to take a while. First, I need to find out how XANA did what he did to you and then we'll take the right course of action." I crawled back into bed, faced Aelita again, and smiled. "But right now, we should get some sleep."

"Okay," she said, still shaking. "Tomorrow we'll work on this."

I frowned sadly at her reactions. "Aelita, are you alright?"

Her back was turned to me and she didn't answer.

"Are you okay, Aelita?" I asked again.

"Hm?" she turned to me. "Oh, yeah. I'm okay."

"I'm…" I gulped. "I'm not scaring you, am I?"

"Is that it?" she asked. "You think I'm scared of you because you're a giant to me, don't you, Jeremy?" I gulped again, wondering if I had upset her. Before I could say anything in response, she walked over to me and placed her hand on my cheek, looking into my eyes.

"I'm not scared of you, Jeremy," she said, without shaking. "I admit that you did scare me to start with, but that was only because I had never experienced anything like that before and it caught me off guard. Obviously, you care a lot about me. Otherwise, you'd never have risked your own safety, followed me to the factory, saved me, and got me back to the school." She hugged my cheek and smiled. "That's not scary in the least."

I blushed rather profusely at this action, and then I smiled and brought my hand around, which wrapped around her in a sort of hug. She didn't even flinch as I did so, and I smiled again.

"Thanks a lot, Aelita," I said. "I needed that."

"Lucky thing we're on Spring break this week, huh?" she asked.

"Oh yeah," I said, releasing her. "That makes all of this less strenuous class-wise."

"So," she began, "where do I sleep?"

"Well, I don't roll around in my sleep," I replied, "so you could sleep next to me." I then blushed again as I said this. "Only if you wanted, though! I won't make you if you don't want to."

"It's alright," she laughed. "That would actually be nice. That way I'd be safe and we'd be near to each other."

I blushed again, but I did my best to hide it. "Well, alright then." I moved aside slightly, making space on my pillow for her to sleep on. "Good night, Aelita."

"Good night, Jeremy," she said, smiling and laying down on the pillow.

I took some of the thin sheets and laid them over Aelita. I then pulled the thick blanket over the both of us, and I closed my eyes. I may have been anxious at first, but Aelita cleared my doubts and calmed my mind yet again. Relieved at this, I drifted off into an easy and peaceful slumber, unaware that before I fell asleep, I had pulled back the sheets from Aelita's sleeping form, draped my hand over her, and pulled the sheets back.

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**A/N: Fluffy ending! What will happen next? You'll find out soon enough because I'm writing the next chapter now!**

**UPDATE: 3/11/2013 - I noticed several mistakes in Jeremy's intro. I originally meant for this to be all in third-person, but I changed to first-person with Jeremy. There were still a bunch of 'his' in the text, ann I changed them all. Next chapter's today!**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	2. Chapter 2: A Not-So-Rude Awakening

**A/N: Two days later, here we are! In case you didn't know, this is a Code Lyoko G/T story. G/T (or often GT) means "giant-tiny", meaning anything with someone (male) who is significantly bigger than someone else (usually female).**

**Code Lyoko (C) 2002-2013 MoonScoop, France 3, and all other names and holders. Please support the official release.**

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Chapter 2 – A Not-So-Rude Awakening

"It's 7 AM, top of the hour, and we're with the latest hit from the well-known Subdigitals here to wake you up to a great day!"

~Let's get up on this moonlight ride~ ~and it's such a supersonic feeling~ ~We're surfing through time~ ~We can feel we're really moving~

The sound of "Virtual World" semi-blaring from the radio got me to weakly wave my arm at my alarm clock, feeling for the "alarm off" button. I ended up slapping the clock base with no result, but then I eventually found the button, and pressed it down firmly. As soon as I did, the noise of the radio died at once. I wearily blinked for several seconds before I finally opened my eyes.

I yawned and sat up, glancing down at my pillow. Thankfully, Aelita was still there. However, I noticed that my right hand was covering her body as a sort of blanket. I blushed a little at this, though unsure as to why, and removed my hand from over her. As I did, she began to move, stretching and yawning herself.

"Good morning, Aelita," I said softly.

"Oh, good morning, Jeremy," she said sleepily, which I thought was kind of cute. She blinked and looked up at me. Suddenly, she gasped and jumped back from me. "Jeremy?!" she shrieked. "Oh my gosh, you're a giant! What's going on? Where am I?"

"No, Aelita!" I whispered. "You were shrunk by XANA! I took you here to my dorm room when you rematerialized last night, remember?"

Aelita's frightened actions and rapid breathing slowed to a stop, and she collapsed backwards on the bed. Afraid that she had fainted, I swept her off of the pillow with my right hand, cupping it as I brought her tiny body to my face. I hadn't realized until now just how light she was in her new size. She barely weighed anything at all to me. I started breathing out my nose so I wouldn't blow on Aelita. However, one sigh slipped out of my mouth and caused Aelita's hair to fly around a bit. Her eyes flew open and she groaned.

"So it wasn't a dream, was it?" she asked.

"I'm afraid not," I said sheepishly. "But remember, today we'll start to find out how to get you back to your normal size."

"Right," she said, looking down. "Sorry about that, Jeremy. I just didn't expect for this whole 'my-boyfriend's-ten-times-bigger-than-me' thing to be real. I had just hoped I was still asleep in my room and the call from my dad and all that came after that had all been just another crazy dream."

"Your dad?" I asked, confused. "You didn't mention anything about him."

"I don't think I explained what happened at all," she added.

"No, you didn't," I replied. "Do you want to tell me?"

"Yeah, I should," she said, looking back at me. "It all started when I thought I got a call from my dad last night. He said he had a code that could help free William from XANA's control. But when I got to Lyoko, William attacked me, having used daddy's voice to lure me there. Then he called the Schyphozoa, and it grabbed me and started sucking my code out of my brain. That's when you came in; I tried to call out but I couldn't even move. I soon felt myself fade away, and I fell unconscious after the materialization, you obviously took me to your dorm room, and here we are."

"Well, how would he even know about William's possession in the first place?" I couldn't help but ask, rather annoyed.

"I didn't think about that really hard," she admitted. "I thought he knew about XANA since he made him and all. I…I just wanted to see daddy again." She curled into a ball in my hand and started to whimper. My irritation faded just as quick as it came, and I cupped my other hand around her body and brought her close to my chest, enveloping her in a less stranger hug than last night's one.

"I'm sorry, Aelita," I said. "I didn't mean to sound so mad. I'm just worried about you. You've got to be more skeptical about things that seem too good to be true. Believe me; I take this lesson from personal experience."

"That's okay, Jeremy," she said. I could feel barely her gripping my shirt, and I looked down to see her hugging my shirt to her body. "I'd probably to the same thing if it was the other way around."

"Oh, did you forget already?" I snickered.

"What do you mean?" she asked, looking up at me.

"It was the other way around once," I replied, bringing her back up to my face. "Don't you remember? XANA took control of a tower and materialized a gas that shrunk me while I was in my bed. You freaked out and swiped me off and on the desk so fast I felt like my insides were going to fly out of my body. Your face filled my whole field of vision, and my face is probably doing the same fro you right now."

"Oh yeah," she said, grinning. "I was so scared, I didn't know what to think or what to do, except for getting you back to your normal size." Just then, she raised her index finger in a realization. "Oh, you're saying that this is like that time, right?"

I nodded. "You know what that means, right?"

"You're calling the gang?" she asked.

"You know it," I nodded, reaching over to my nightstand. I picked up my cell phone, and I briefly and humorously mentally recalled the moment I had mentioned to Aelita. I dialed Yumi's number and waited while the phone on the other end rang. After a few seconds of ringing, I heard a clicking noise.

"What is it, Jeremy?" Yumi said. "It's not another XANA attack, is it?"

"I'm sorry, Yumi," I replied, "but yes. You need to get down here stat. XANA has already struck, and you need to see how far he's sunk."

"Okay," she said. "I'll head to the factory. I'll tell my mom I'm heading to the park to see my friends."

"See you there," I said, and hung up. I placed my phone back on my nightstand and looked at Aelita.

"I'm gonna need to take a shower and get dressed," I said, "So I'm going to have to put you down for a while. Once I do, could you please hide somewhere and don't move until I say so?"

"Sure thing, Jeremy," she nodded.

I moved my hand to my desk and she jumped off it and hid behind my desk computer monitor. I then looked to my dresser and I dug out a fresh pair of undergarments, a shirt and pants, and took off for the showers. As I left, I wished I could lock my door from the outside so that Aelita could really be safe, but I felt that she could take care of herself. Nevertheless, I felt an uncanny urge that made me antsy when I wasn't absolutely sure that she was safe. To me, the safest I have ever felt Aelita was when I held her in my hand. I had no idea why, but I felt like I could protect her from XANA or even anything.

As I entered the shower stalls, I noticed Ulrich and Odd were coming out, having finished their cleaning themselves. Ulrich noticed me, and waved.

"Hey, Einstein!" Ulrich said. "Good morning!"

"Oh, hey Jeremy!" Odd said, turning his head to face me."What's up?"

"A lot," I said. "Listen, could the two of you stick around until I'm finished here? There's something you guys need to see."

"You finally got me a copy of 'Star Blasters' the movie?" Odd grinned.

"I'm afraid it's more serious than that," I sighed.

"XANA already?" Ulrich groaned. "It hasn't even been three days since his last attack!"

"I know," I said, "but this is different. He's already struck here on Earth, and you need to see how."

Ulrich sighed frustrated, but nodded. "Okay, fine. But this had better be important."

"Oh, you have no idea," I said as I stepped into the washroom.

==CODE LYOKO==

I stepped out of the washroom, clean as a whistle, and noticed Ulrich and Odd were still at the doorway. I smiled and headed up to them.

"Follow me," I said.

"Where are we going?" Odd asked.

"My dorm room," I answered, and said no more.

I led them back down the dorm hall, and stopped when we came to my door. I looked around to make sure no one was watching, and I knocked three times on my door, opening it after I did.

"It's okay, Aelita," I called out as I stepped inside. "It's me, Ulrich, and Odd. You can come out now."

"Aelita?" Ulrich asked, looking around. "Jeremy, I don't see her anywhere."

"Yeah, where is she?" Odd chimed in.

"You'll see her soon enough," I said, ushering them inside. I closed the door and locked it behind me.

"What's going on?" Ulrich asked. "Why'd you lock us in?"

"It's not to keep you in," I said, "It's to keep everyone else from looking in."

"Looking in at what?" Odd asked.

"My desk," I said, pointing to it. As I did, I motioned for Ulrich and Odd to get closer. "Don't get too close, okay? I don't want her freaking out anymore than she already is."

"Who are you talking about?" Ulrich asked.

"He's talking about me," Aelita's voice rang out. Both Ulrich and Odd blinked, and looked at the desk. Aelita stepped out from behind the monitor, rather slowly and no doubt nervously, and Ulrich and Odd looked both surprised and shocked.

"Hey, guys," she waved nervously.

"Aelita?" Ulrich gawked, leaning into the desk. "Is that really you?" As he leaned in, Aelita stepped back a few centimeters.

"Easy, Ulrich," I said, moving in front of him. "She's still not used to this."

"Sorry," Ulrich said, moving back several centimeters. "How'd you get so small?"

"It's a long story," she replied, shuffling away from his face, which wasn't all that far from her. "XANA tricked me into coming to the factory by disguising himself as my dad, and William showed up on Sector 5, calling the Schyphozoa to steal my digital code from me. In a way, he kind of did. He stole the part of my code that enabled the full materialization of my body, which is why I'm only nine centimeters tall."

"How'd you know it was that code?" I asked. "We didn't even look it up yet."

"I did while you were gone," she grinned. "So, where's Yumi?"

"She's still on her way," I said.

"She is?" Ulrich asked.

"Well, we're going to need all of Team Lyoko here, right?" I asked. "Yumi's even told her parent's that she'll be at the park, so it's a perfect alibi for heading to the factory."

"All right," Ulrich said. "Sounds like a plan to me."

"Man, this is like that one episode of 'Hospital of Horrors' am I right?" Odd said. "Remember? Dr. Shrank invented that shrink ray and shrunk the main character and the heroine? They almost got eaten by his cat if it wasn't for good old Hank!"

"Did you really have to bring that up, Odd?" I asked irritably.

"Eh, I guess not," Odd said, scratching the back of his head. "To the park, then!"

"Right," I said. I then looked at Aelita. "You ready?"

"I am," she nodded.

I then placed my hand on my desk, and she climbed into it. I raised my hand up to my chest, and we all walked to the door. As I unlocked the doorknob, Odd tapped my shoulder.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Listen," Odd said, "I know I'm not the brightest one of our group, but there's something bugging me."

"Oh?" I raised my eyebrow. "What's that?"

"For starters," he began, "You'd better keep someone from seeing Aelita, so you need to find a safe place on your person to hide her."

"Yeah, I figured that," I said, nodding.

"And another thing," he added, "If Aelita's shrunk like this, how's she going to deactivate the tower?"

"Oh, crap!" I slapped my forehead. "I forgot about that! We can't deactivate the tower without Aelita!"

"Not exactly," Aelita piped up.

"What do you mean?" I asked, lifting Aelita up to my face.

"I've been the only one to have deactivated the towers until now," she said, "but that doesn't mean no one else can deactivate the towers."

"Seriously?" Ulrich said, looking at her quizzically.

"It's not all that complicated," she said. "I'll explain more when we get to the park. In the meantime, Jeremy, Odd's right. We can't risk anyone seeing me like this. Do you have a shirt or a jacket with a front pocket or something?"

"Well," I said, "I do have this one shirt that my mom sent me for my birthday three months ago, but I haven't worn it since I got it. I guess now's a good a time as any. Ulrich, could you hold Aelita for me while I get my shirt out of my closet?"

"Sure thing, Einstein," he nodded. He brought both of his hands where mine were, and Aelita jumped off of my hand and into Ulrich's hands.

"Oh man, this is so weird," Ulrich said.

"You don't know the half of it," Aelita added as she sat down in Ulrich's palm. She turned around to try and look at what I was doing. I took off my red turtleneck sweatshirt, put on a clean undershirt, and put on my birthday shirt over it. It was a plaid red and blue shirt with two breast pockets, one on each side of my jacket. I turned back to the others and struck a pose. "What do you think?"

"It makes you look smarter than usual, Einstein," Odd said. "I like it."

"It does look good on you," Aelita added.

I blushed a little at her comment, and shook my head. "Th-thanks, Aelita." I reached out to Ulrich, and he slid Aelita out of his hands and into my hands. "Thanks," I said.

"You got it, pal," Ulrich said, giving a thumbs-up.

I opened my left breast pocket with my left hand and placed my right hand with Aelita in it next to the pocket. Aelita climbed down from my hand and into the pocket, giving me a tap on the chest to signal she was okay.

"Okay," I sighed, "here we go."

The three of us – or rather, four of us if one counted Aelita in my pocket – made our way from the dorms to the park outside the campus. It was technically part of the school grounds, but it was open to the public, so everyone was welcome. However, we strayed from the normal path that the other people and tourists would tread, and arrived at the manhole leading to the factory, where I noticed Yumi standing next to a bush. She looked up from the ground and when she noticed us, she waved and ran over to us.

"So, what's XANA done this time?" she asked. "I could tell that it didn't sound good from your call earlier today, Jeremy."

"You're right, it isn't," I said. "You just look at this." I opened my pocket that Aelita was in, and I brought her out for Yumi to see. Aelita looked sheepishly at Yumi, while Yumi stared back, both awestruck and very shocked.

"What the…" she started. "Aelita? Is…is that you?"

"Yes, it's me," she said, rather timidly.

"You…you're so small!" she gasped. "Did XANA do this to you?"

"I'm afraid so," I said. "That's why we need to get to Lyoko and find out what XANA's up to and stop it."

"But how can we do that without Aelita?" Yumi asked. "She's the only one who can deactivate the towers on Lyoko!"

"She mentioned something about that before we came over," I said, "but she hasn't said anything more on that subject since then."

"It's something that can only be said when we're all together at the factory, okay?" Aelita said. "I don't want anyone picking up what I'm going to say."

"I think we got it covered, Princess," Odd smiled. "Let's just go already!"

"Alright," I said, and everyone else nodded. I slipped Aelita back into my pocket, and we all went down the manhole into the sewers. Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi grabbed their skateboards and grinded down the railing of the sewer stairs that led to the tunnels that in turn led towards the factory. I grabbed my scooter a bit slower than the others and started after them.

"Hey, guys!" I yelled up ahead. "Would you mind slowing down a bit?"

"Can't keep up, Einstein?" Odd teased.

"It's not that, you knucklehead!" I shouted. "Need I remind you I'm carrying a special passenger?"

"Oh, right," Odd said, braking a little with his foot while Yumi and Ulrich did the same. "Sorry about that."

"It's alright," I said. "Don't worry about me, it's Aelita that's the special case."

"Speaking of which," Yumi said, "are you doing okay, Aelita?"

"I'm fine," she said, a little shaken.

"I hope so," I said to myself as we arrive at the staircase to the factory. We all locked our vehicles, and I climbed the stairs first, opening the manhole above us so we could all get through. The gang ran across the bridge while I just slightly jogged, cupping the pocket Aelita was in the whole time. Once we got to the factory entrance, the others slid down the rope while I took the stairs. We all went to the elevator and I pressed the button to go down.

Once the door opened to the mainframe room, I walked to the chair and sat down in it, taking Aelita out of my pocket and placing her on the same keyboard panel from last night. The others crowded behind me, looking at the screen.

"Something's changed," I said.

"What do you mean?" Ulrich asked.

"The activated tower was on Sector 5," I started, "but now it's gone."

"The tower's been activated?" Yumi shrugged.

"No," I said, "I meant that the whole tower is not on the radar."

"What?!" Aelita gasped. "It's not?"

"Seriously?" Odd leaned in closer to the screen.

"I mean it," I said solemnly. "The tower that XANA activated to shrink Aelita has vanished form Lyoko."

* * *

**A/N: Uh-oh! Things don't look too good for Aelita! Tune in next time to find out what happens next!**

**By the way, there's an Easter Egg for those who watch the show and two for those who watch Code Lyoko Evolution! First to drop a comment on each one gets a mention in the next chapter!**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	3. Chapter 3: The Long Week

**A/N: This chapter is a little short, but it's good nonetheless! And there's an Easter Egg for those who watch a lot of ads!**

**Code Lyoko (C) 2002-2013 MoonScoop, France 3. I don't own it.**

* * *

Chapter 3 – The Long Week

"What do you mean, it's vanished from Lyoko?" Yumi asked.

"I meant exactly what I said," I replied. "The tower no longer exists in Sector 5."

"Well, is it somewhere else on Lyoko?" Ulrich asked. "It couldn't have just disappeared off the face of Lyoko, could it?"

"It's happened before once or twice," I said, "but I'll see for sure."

With that, I launched the full Tower Scan program. I leaned back in the chair, and sighed heavily. I looked at Aelita, still sitting on the keyboard, and I noticed that she looked very worried.

"Is something wrong?" I asked her.

"Yeah," she said, rather scared. "If the tower's gone, then does that mean you can't get me back to my normal size?"

"I don't know," I said, scratching the back of my head. "I don't think so, but once the Tower Scan finds something, we'll know for sure."

As soon as I said this, the computer made a loud beeping noise. We all jolted and looked at the screen.

"There is a tower that's been active in the Mountain Sector for a while," I said.

"Maybe it's the tower we're looking for," Ulrich suggested.

"That may be," I said, rubbing my chin. "You three get down to the scanners right away. I'll start up the virtualization process."

"Right," Yumi nodded, and they headed to the elevator. Once the door closed, I looked at Aelita.

"Are you sure that the others can deactivate the tower?" I asked.

"I'm sure of it," she replied. "I'll tell you and the others once they find the tower."

"Okay," I said, turning to the screen. The gang was in the scanners, and I typed in the code to start the process of virtualization.

"Transfer, Odd," I started. "Transfer, Ulrich. Transfer, Yumi." I then pressed another sequence. "Scanner, Odd. Scanner, Ulrich. Scanner, Yumi." I then hit the large enter key. "Virtualization."

===CODE LYOKO===

Within seconds, the gang had dropped onto the gray gravelly surface of the Mountain Sector. After they did so, their vehicles materialized next to them. Ulrich climbed onto the Overbike, Yumi hopped on the Overwing, and Odd jumped onto the Overboard.

"All right, guys," I said over the com link. "The tower should be just a few meters in your direction. Watch out for monsters and don't crash into anything!"

"We know, Jeremy," Ulrich waved as they moved towards the tower.

"I know you and Yumi know," I said. "I said that for Odd's sake."

"Hey, that's not funny, Einstein!" Odd whined.

It may not have been funny for him, but the rest of us burst up laughing. However, our fun was short-lived when a familiar beeping noise emitted on the radar, and I noticed several red dots head towards the gang.

"Joke time's over, guys!" I shouted. "You've got company behind you!"

The three looked behind them and saw two Tarantulas and three Hornets heading for them. As they turned back around, they had to screech to a halt to avoid crashing into the line of Bloks that stood between them and the tower, which was only a meter or so away.

"Man," Yumi said, jumping off the Overwing, "XANA just doesn't quit, does he?"

"Neither do we," Ulrich said, drawing his twin katana sabers. Odd cocked his arm, and the trio charged at the rear line, Ulrich slicing a Tarantula, while Odd and Yumi took care of the Hornets. A Blok fired at Yumi, and she got hit in her right arm, shouting as she fell to the ground.

"Look out, guys!" I shouted. "That just cost Yumi 30 life points!"

"I'm on it, Einstein!" Odd hollered, and shot the Blok that shot at Yumi. Another Blok shot at him, but he jumped away, shooting at the Blok as he dodged. It dodged the first laser arrow, but the second one shot right through the monster.

"Booyah!" Odd cheered.

"No time for patting yourself on the back, Odd!" Ulrich snapped, and sliced the other Tarantula.

"Yumi!" I shouted. "While the boys have the monsters at bay, get to the tower!"

"If you say so, Einstein!" she yelled back, and dashed to the tall white structure. She stopped once she got there, and she tried to go inside, but there was no door that she could find.

"Jeremy, I can't get in," she said. "There's no door."

"There isn't supposed to be one," Aelita said to me. "Let me talk to her."

I nodded and took the earpiece out of my ear and placed it next to Aelita. She then picked up the microphone, which was roughly the size of a small watermelon to her, and cleared her throat.

"Yumi?" she called. "Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, Aelita," Yumi answered.

"You need to want to go in the tower," Aelita said. "Just think, 'I want to go inside,' and you'll get in."

"Okay," Yumi said, sighing. "I want to go inside."

She closed her eyes, breathed in and out, and stepped forward. She walked through the wall and into the tower. When she opened her eyes, she found she was inside the tower, on the main platform. She looked up and noticed the interface platform hovering several meters above her.

"Okay, how do I get up there?" Yumi asked.

"Same way as you got in," Aelita answered. "Just think, 'I want to go up,' and you'll go up."

Yumi nodded, closing her eyes and thinking what Aelita told her to think. As soon as she started thinking about it, she levitated up to the platform, and landed perfectly. She opened her eyes and smiled.

"That wasn't all that hard," she snickered.

"Less talking, more deactivating!" I shouted. "Odd and Ulrich got rid of the monsters, but it won't be calm for long! There could be more on the way!"

"I get it, Jeremy," she groaned. "What next, Aelita?"

"Just place your hand on the screen and type in Code: Lyoko," Aelita replied.

"Got it," Yumi said, doing as she was told. Once she typed in the code, the screens around her fell to the bottom of the tower, signifying it was now deactivated.

"Did that work, Jeremy?" she asked.

===CODE LYOKO===

I looked at the screen and looked at Aelita. She was still the same size she was when we got to the factory. I put the headset back to my ear, and then noticed something blinking on one of the screens that made my eyes widen.

"Nothing's changed, Yumi," I said. "Aelita's still small."

"But we deactivated the tower!" Odd protested.

"Why didn't it work?" Ulrich asked.

"We deactivated _a_ tower," I said. "I never said we deactivated _the_ tower."

"What does that mean?" Yumi asked.

"Remember how I said that the tower XANA used that shrunk Aelita was in Sector 5?" I asked.

"Yeah," she replied.

"Well, it just reappeared out of nowhere," I said. "I can see it plain as day on my radar."

"Really?" Ulrich said. "Well, let's beat feet and get there!"

"Alright," I said. "Get to the edge of the sector and I'll call your taxi to Carthage."

The three Lyoko Warriors got to a cliff at the edge of the Mountain Sector, and I typed in the code 'Scipio' into one of the screens, and the large white sphere descended from the sky, sweeping the gang into it and flying off to Sector 5. Once it stopped in the hub of Carthage, the gang rematerialized from the sphere and headed off into the digital maze of Sector 5.

"Where's the tower, Jeremy?" Odd asked.

"It should be straight ahead at the end of this road," I replied.

"Uh, Jeremy?" Yumi said. "I think we just figured out why the tower disappeared."

"Really?" I said. "How?"

"It looks like it's in a Guardian," Yumi replied.

"A Guardian?" I raised my eyebrows. "Really? XANA hasn't used one of those in a long time."

"It's not really a Guardian," Aelita piped up. "Guardians held people, but this is more like a force field. It's holding the tower inside, and I don't think it will be easy to destroy the barrier and get to the tower."

"Aelita's got a point," I said.

"But how is XANA getting the power to make this barrier?" Ulrich asked. "The other tower's been deactivated."

Before I could answer this, a horde of red dots appeared behind the gang's positions on the radar.

"Look out, guys!" I shouted. "William's behind you!"

As they all turned around, William swung his sword at the gang from a high point, and his sword's energy slash devirtualized the whole gang before they even had a chance to think. I hissed in anger as their data cards vanished from the screen. I looked at Aelita, who nodded at me, and I brought my hand up to the keyboard. She then jumped off the panel that she was on, landing softly and squarely in my palm, and I went to the elevator to descend to the scanner room. As the door opened, I looked around at my friends.

"Are you all okay?" I asked.

"Depends on what your definition of 'okay' is, Jeremy," Yumi grumbled.

"That was not fun," Odd moaned. "Not even a little."

"Yeah, I agree," Ulrich added. "Man, I hate that guy. We've got to go back in there."

I shook my head. "Sorry, but the virtualization process has a 12-hour period after devirtualization before you can be virtualized again."

"12 hours?" Odd whined. "Now I know how those snot blobs on those TV ads feel!" Ulrich elbowed Odd in the ribs. "Ow! What was that for?" he shouted in pain.

"This isn't about you, Odd!" Ulrich growled, motioning to me and Aelita. Odd's eyes widened in realization and lowered his head. "Oh, right. Sorry, Aelita."

"It's all right," she said, "it's no harm done."

"I'm the one who should be apologizing, Aelita," I said, looking down at her in my hand. "It's my fault that William got rid of them."

"XANA laid an ambush, Jeremy," Aelita said, looking up at me. "No one could have known about it."

"I just wish I knew something about how he could pull this barrier off," I said.

"Maybe we should check the supercomputer," Yumi suggested. "There may be something there that could help us out."

"I suppose so," I said. We then rode the elevator back to the mainframe room, and I sat down in the chair, once again placing Aelita on the keyboard. I typed away, trying to find something, anything, which could help us get Aelita back to normal. Just then, one of the scans blinked, showing another Replika had been created by XANA. As I noticed this, an idea came to me.

"Guys," I said, "I think I've got it!"

"You've got what?" Ulrich asked.

"What if he's not using a tower on Lyoko to power that barrier?" I replied.

"What do you mean by that?" Yumi asked.

"I think that he's not using a tower on Lyoko to power this barrier," I responded. "I think he's using a tower from one of the Replikas."

"The Replikas?" Odd asked. "Why use them and what for?"

"He must be storing the energy he took from Aelita in one of these Replikas," I said, "and that one is where he's going to use it for who-knows-what in his new plan!"

"Well, we'd better find out the Replika, then!" Odd cheered. "How do we do that?"

I sighed. "That's where this is going to get harder. We have no idea where the tower is, so we'll have to manually scan each Replika until we find the right one."

"What?" Odd moaned. "We have to go to all of those Replikas to find the only one out of who knows how many that's controlling the barrier that's covering the tower on Sector 5?"

"Wow, Odd," Ulrich said. "I'm impressed you managed to have said all that without stopping to think."

"So am I," I said, rubbing my chin. "However, we need to stay on target. We can't go back now, since you've all been devirtualized, so we'll go tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Yumi said. "But what about Aelita? You can't just leave her like that! It's not right!"

"Believe me," I started to shout as I turned in the chair, "If I wasn't such a wuss on Lyoko, I'd go there in a heartbeat for Aelita, or for any of you, or even for the whole world. But I can't change my avatar anymore than any of you can, so that's that. I'd be wiped out before I could even glance at the tower."

"Sorry, Jeremy," Yumi sighed.

"It's all right," I waved, turning back to the monitor. "As for what the mission entrails, we'd just need to go to the Replikas and access one of the towers there to scan the whole supercomputer. We don't even need to activate a tower."

"Well, there's some good news," Ulrich said.

"Until you guys get to a Replika," I continued, "we can't really do anything but wait at this point."

"So, we're stuck, huh?" Odd asked.

"Unfortunately, yes," I sighed, getting of the chair. "This is going to be a long day."

"And it will maybe a long week if XANA gets us again," Ulrich added.

"Thanks for that, Gloomy Gus," Yumi chided.

"Maybe we can't do anything to change what's happened," Aelita said, "but you can at least not begin to mope around and complain. Keep your spirits up and we'll stay on top!"

I smiled. "Thanks for that, Aelita." I brought my hand back to the keyboard.

"It's my pleasure," she smiled back as she stepped into my hand. We all walked to the elevator and ascended to the main floor. The gang and I took the ladders to the bridge, climbed down into the sewers, and rode back to the park. Once we emerged, we each waved goodbye to each other and went our separate ways. Yumi went home, Odd and Ulrich went out on town to enjoy their spring break, and I headed back to my room with Aelita tucked away in my pocket.

Once I got to my room, I locked the door behind me and brought Aelita out. I set her down on my nightstand and went to the computer, trying to find out something that could give us a lead on XANA's activity. No sooner had I started than I heard Aelita clear her throat. I turned around to face her, and I saw her hands were on her hips.

"What is it?" I asked.

"There's nothing more you can do, Jeremy," she said annoyed. "Will you stop working yourself so hard?"

"But there may be something we missed," I protested. "What if XANA left a trail on Lyoko? What if-"

"But nothing!" she yelled. "I don't like it when you work yourself this way, even in the daytime! Now turn away from that screen and take a darn break!"

I looked at her for a long time, and sighed. "Okay, you win. I'll take a break." I got up from my chair and sat down on my bed.

"Okay, now what?" I asked her.

"Next, you lay down on the bed," she replied.

I laid flat down on my back and looked at her.

"Now you pick me up and place me on your chest," Aelita answered.

"Really?" I raised my eyebrow, and Aelita nodded. I shrugged, and brought my hand to Aelita. She leaned into my oncoming hand, and I slowly brought her to my torso, setting her down just above where my heart would be. She stumbled a bit, trying to steady herself, and started to walk up my body to my head.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Don't say anything," she replied calmly. "Just stay still."

As soon as she said this, I could feel her small hands touching my chin and her feet on my neck. She then vaulted over my chin and landed on top of it. I screwed my eyes a bit so I could focus on her. She was really close now, and I saw that her breathing was slightly shaking as she stared into my face, which was no doubt enormous to her. She then leaned forward and planted a small kiss on my bottom lip, causing me to blush rather profusely.

"Now, you take a nice, long nap," she said, smiling and blushing herself.

I smiled in turn, plucking her off my chin and placing her back on my chest, covering her with the blankets while closing my eyes. This time, when I draped my hand over her, I was well aware of it, and I meant to do it.

* * *

**D'awww, isn't that sweet? What could go wrong? More than you think!**

**Now, for the easter eggs from last chapter:**

**Jeremy's Evolution outfit: caught by aelitalyoko99**

**Everyone can deactivate the tower (Evolution): caught by samantha-hays and DarkMousyRulezAll (DMRA was first, but someone else needed the chance.)**

**I'm still waiting for someone to catch the last chapter's easter egg!**

**Here's a hint: it's from the early original Code Lyoko series!**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	4. Chapter 4: FIsh and Chips

**A/N: Two story updates in one day? What sorcery compells me to do so? The power of a creative and determined mind!**

**Code Lyoko (C) 2002-2013 MoonScoop, France 3. I don't own it, support the official release.**

* * *

Chapter 4 – Fish and Chips

I slept soundly enough, and I would have slept through lunch. But just before noon, Aelita slowly woke up and rubbed her eyes. She stretched and yawned, and looked up at me. She noticed my hand resting over her body, and she blushed slightly. She then tried to crawl out from under it, but she wasn't strong enough to push my hand off of her. She then tapped her feet on my chest and tapped her hands on my hand.

"Jeremy," she said softly at first. After no response, she shouted, "Jeremy!"

I wearily blinked and rubbed my eyes with my other hand. I grunted sleepily and sniffled for a while. I then gave a big yawn and looked down at my chest.

"Oh," I mumbled. "Good morning, Aelita."

Just then, I snapped to attention, my eyes flaring open, and I removed my hand from my chest, freeing her from my once sleepy grasp. "Sorry! I didn't think you'd be warm enough, so I…"

"It's alright, Jeremy," she waved. "It was actually kind of nice. I could feel your heartbeat, you know."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah," she said, rather dazed. "It's really something, almost mesmerizing." She then blinked. "That's not weird, is it?"

"I don't think so," I replied. "Anyway, how do you want to spend the rest of the morning?"

"It's actually the afternoon now, Jeremy," she said, pointing to my alarm clock. It showed 12:12 P.M.

"I slept for three hours in the daytime?" I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

"We slept for three hours in the daytime," Aelita corrected me.

"Right," I said. I then heard a small sound, almost undetectable, that sounded like a growling noise. "I take it we need something for lunch?"

"I guess so," Aelita blushed.

"How about I run up to the takeout place on the corner and get us some fish and fries?" I suggested, sitting up and scooping her up in my hand.

"That sounds like a good idea," she smiled. "I'm all for it. I'm staying here, right?"

"Actually, I think it would be better if I took you along with me," I replied.

"But how will you keep anyone from noticing me?" she asked.

"I can easily hide you in my shirt pocket," I replied. "I don't want you here where someone could find you easier than they would if you were with me."

"Well, you've got a point there," she said, shrugging. "All right, let's go."

I nodded and stood up, bringing my hand to my shirt's left pocket. I opened the flap and she slid off my hand and into it. I looked inside the pocket and she gave me a thumbs up. I then shut the flap, took my wallet out from my nightstand drawer, and walked out of my room. However, when I stepped out the door, I bumped right into someone.

"Oof!" I grunted. "Sorry about that!"

Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the person I had bumped into was Herb Pichon. I respected him as a fellow intellectual, but I absolutely hated the fact that he willingly reduced himself to being the manservant of a girl with the mental capacity of a squirrel, that being Sissi Delmas. The whiny daughter of Jean-Pierre Delmas, the chancellor of Kadic Academy, was always getting Herb or his friend Nicholas Poliakoff to do her homework for her, which resulted in all of them getting in trouble with Mr. Delmas.

Now, he dusted himself off, looked at me, and glared.

"What was that for, you jerk?" he snapped.

"I was just going out of my room," I snapped back. "The real question should be this: What are you doing near my room, Herb?"

"I was…" he started, trying to say something that would keep me from calling Jim. "I was looking for you. I need help doing Sissi's science homework."

"Sorry," I said sternly, "but I have no intention of helping a cheater. You do the work yourself. And you can tell your boss to do the same."

I shut my door and walked off, leaving Herb stunned. Once I descended the stairs and exited the dorm complex, I looked in my pocket at Aelita.

"That was close," I said. "Is everything okay in there? You're not hurt or anything, right?"

"I'm just fine," Aelita said, her hand covering her heart. "Herb just startled me, that's all."

"Okay," I said. "Now let's get that fish."

I walked out the gates to the school and went down the street to a nearby café. I used to go to this place, which is known as the Four Corners Café, all of the time as a kid. I liked this place because the food choice was composed of our own cultures along with American food, other European food, Asian food, and even some African food. However, when I walked up to the counter and looked at the menu, I looked at a picture of the popular British dish known as 'fish and chips', the latter of which are more commonly known as French fries to the rest of the world. In case you're wondering, we just call them fries here for obvious reasons.

The cashier turned to me. "What do you want to order, son?" he asked with a British accent.

"I'll have an order of fish and chips to go, please," I said to him. "Also, I'd like a small diet Pepsi."

"It's on the way," he said, writing it down on a piece of paper and sticking it up on a rack. He then rotated the rack so that the head chef could see the order, and he then started preparing the food. The cashier then handed me a small paper cup, and I went to the soda fountain to fill it up. I pushed the Pepsi lever with the cup, and the dark sugary liquid gushed out the nozzle, quickly filling my cup in less than five seconds. I put a plastic cover over it, and went back to my table to await the completion of my order. I did not wait for long, however, as three minutes after I sat down again, the cashier placed a medium sized white takeout box next to me.

"Thanks for waiting," he said. "That all counts up to five Euros and sixty-two cent Euros."

I reached into my wallet and pulled out a five Euro bill and some coins that amounted to the rest of the change.

"Here you go," I said. "That should be enough."

"Why, yes it is," he said, counting the change and placing it in the cash register. "Thank you very much."

"Thank you," I said, picking up the box and standing up. "You have a nice day."

"You too," he said as I left.

As I got back to the school, I looked inside one of the school lunchrooms close to the boy's dorm, and noticed that no one was inside. I slipped inside and went to a small table in the corner. I opened the box and took out a small thin fry, breaking it into two pieces and opening my pocket. I also cut a piece of the breaded fish the size of a crouton and stuck it inside my pocket as well.

"It's still too risky taking you out while we're here," I said to Aelita, "so I hope you don't mind me giving you your lunch like this."

"It's all right, Jeremy," I heard Aelita call out quietly. "I kind of felt this would happen. It's no problem, please don't feel too bad." She then started chowing down after saying a quick prayer over her food.

"Thanks, Aelita," I said, starting to eat myself.

"Who're you talking to now, Brainiac?" a voice asked. I jolted in surprise before turning around and noticing who had spoken.

"Sissi?" I gasped, not expecting in the least to see her here. "What are you doing here?"

"I had hoped that Ulrich would hang out in a gloomy place like this," she replied. "That way I could surprise him with my surprise lunch that I made just for him!"

"Eh, no offense to your cooking, Sissi," I said, "but I think that he'd rather gargle liquid nitrogen than eat something you made."

"What!?" she shrieked. I instinctively covered my pocket to shield the loud noise from Aelita's small and now very sensitive ears. As I did so, Sissi looked at me rather strangely.

"Why did you just touch your chest?" she asked.

"Uh," I started before I started pounding my chest and coughing softly. "I took too big of a bite and it hurt my stomach."

"Whatever," she rolled her eyes. "If you see Ulrich, you tell him that our lunch is waiting!" With that, she walked away, grinning smugly. I sighed heavily, and looked inside my pocket.

"Are you alright, Aelita?" I asked.

"A little shaken, but I'm alright in here," Aelita responded.

"Maybe I should take my lunch from here and finish it in my room so you can have yours without too many interruptions," I said.

"No, it's okay," she waved. "This stuff's going to happen a lot, and I have no problem with it. I may not like it, but I won't protest."

I smiled and began to finish the rest of my fish and fries, occasionally sipping my soda to wash the food down. Once I finished my food, I threw away my trash and went back to my room. I looked both ways, closed my door, locked it from the inside, and took Aelita out of my pocket and set her on my desk. She was finished with her lunch as well, and she rubbed her stomach.

"That was quite a lot, Jeremy," she said.

"Maybe it was for you at that size," I said, rubbing my chin. "This is still going to take some getting used to."

"How much longer until the gang can go to Lyoko again?" she asked.

"Six and a half hours," I said, "but I can't imagine Yumi would be too good at convincing her parents to go out with her friends twice in one day at the same exact place, especially since we plan to repeat it until we find your code."

"Yumi's pretty smart," Aelita reminded me. "I'm sure that she'll figure out something out. In the meantime, Odd and Ulrich are always available.

"That's true," I nodded. "So, what else do you want to do while we wait?"

"Gosh, I don't know," she replied, rubbing her chin. "I hadn't thought far enough as to know what we'd do if I couldn't turn back to normal right away."

"I know what you mean," I nodded. "Usually, we're so quick with these missions to Lyoko, even with William being possessed by XANA. But now, I finally feel like time's going a lot slower than I would like it to go."

"Yeah," Aelita agreed. "I think I'm starting to find out where they get the phrase 'the days are long but the years are short'."

"Well, how about we watch a movie?" I suggested.

"How would we do that?" she asked. "We can't go to a theatre! There would be too many people there who might see me!"

"I didn't mean it like that," I said. "I meant like popping a DVD in my computer and watching it here."

"Oh," she said. "You have DVD movies here?"

"Well, doesn't everyone?" I joked. "And before you ask, Odd doesn't count. He already has way too many distractions as it is."

"Well, I can't argue with that," she nodded. "That guy's got more random actions and crazy moves than all of the main viral internet videos put there put together."

"Oh yeah," I said. I then stood up and walked to my desk. I pulled out one of my drawers that contained my movie collection, which was secret to all at school but me. I touched the labels of each case with my fingers, trying to decide which one felt good to watch.

"What do you fell like, Aelita?" I asked. "I've got some sci-fi movies, fantasy movies, what looks good to you?"

"Well, I'd know better if I could see the movie titles for myself, you know," she said.

"Oh, right," I blushed in embarrassment, leaning over and holding my hand out for Aelita. She nimbly jumped onto my hand and I brought her over to my cache of DVDs. She leaned forward in my hand, which I now cupped to ensure that she wouldn't fall, and looked at the titles in the drawer. She then pointed to one.

"That one looks good, Jeremy," she said.

"Which one?" I asked, before I looked at the one she had pointed out. "Sleeping Beauty?" I blushed rather profusely."Are you serious?" I asked her.

"Of course I'm sure," she nodded. "Why do you ask that?"

"I was wondering you'd ask why I have it in my collection," I said.

"I'm pretty sure I know why, genius," she smiled. "You were hoping it would happen to you." My face turned even redder as she said this.

"Well, I also think this would be a good idea." I pointed to another DVD.

"The Hunchback of Notre Dame?" she gasped. "I've always wanted to see that movie!"

"Wait a minute," I said slyly. "That movie was made after you were trapped in Lyoko. How would you know about it?"

"They had trailers," she replied, blushing. "I read the book and thought it would make a good movie."

"I see," I smiled. "Well, why not have a double feature? We do have the time, after all."

"Really?" she looked up at me with surprise. "You'd want to stay in here for almost three hours watching a couple of movies with me?"

"I suppose you could call it our second date," I joked, blushing as I said it.

"That sounds nice, actually," she said, blushing herself. "Sure thing."

I popped one of the DVDs in my laptop and I set Aelita down on my desk. As the DVD menu opened up, Aelita looked at me.

"Is this my seat?" she asked, pointing to the desk.

"If you wanted a better one, then no," I said, unsure of what she meant.

"I was thinking of your shoulder or somewhere closer to you than here on this desk," she said.

"I think I can help with that," I grinned. I slowly picked Aelita off of the desk and walked over to my bed. I laid down on it, placed my computer on my lap, and placed Aelita on my chest. "Is this a better seat, my lady?" I asked in a faux elegant tone.

"Why yes, my good sir," Aelita replied, mimicking my mock tone.

"Then lets us begin," I said, clicking the play button on the menu. I gazed at the small form of Aelita for a minute before the movie opening began, and I sighed contentedly. Aelita and I were so content on having a good time together that the rest of the world did not even exist to either one of us. In fact, I was so focused on the movie that I did not even notice the almost undetectable beeping noise that came from a miniature camera mounted on my door.

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**A/N: Short chapter, but sweet! This seems light and happy, but trouble lurks! Wait and see wht happens next!**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	5. Chapter 5: Voyage at Dusk

**A/N: Man, it's been a long while since I updated here! I hope you aren't too mad with me! I just had to study for tests! This engineering course is harder than you think! Anywho, I'm back and better than ever!**

**Code Lyoko (C) 2002-2013 MoonScoop, France 3. PLease support the official release.**

* * *

Chapter 5 – Exposed at Dusk

"That was arguably one of the greatest movies I've ever seen from those guys," Aelita said as the credits rolled at the end of the last movie we watched. We had finished Sleeping Beauty and The Hunchback of Notre Dame with plenty of time to spare, so at Aelita's insistence I pulled out The Black Cauldron from my cache, and popped it in as well. I also managed to garner some snack from my secret stash, which I told Aelita to never reveal to Odd.

"Not to mention it's also one of the darkest," I added. "That movie had a darker setting and a more ominous musical score in it than anyone had ever expected or ever will expect from Disney. And that's what makes it different from their other movies." I glanced at the clock, and raised my eyebrow when I noticed the time. "Well, where does the time go? It's already 10 minutes past nine. We'd better get the gang ready." I closed my laptop and placed it on my desk. I sat up, scooping up Aelita as I did so, and got out of my bed.

"Are you ready for this, Aelita?" I asked.

"I'm ready," she replied, and I smiled.

"Then let's get this done," I said, and moved my hand to my pocket. She then opened my pocket flap and climbed into it. I opened my door, went out of my room, and knocked on Odd and Ulrich's door.

"Is it time, Einstein?" Odd asked as he opened the door.

"I've been itching for revenge against William," Ulrich added as he stepped up.

"It's time, guys," I replied. "I'm calling Yumi." I took out my cell phone and dialed Yumi's number. After a while, Yumi picked up.

"Yeah, Jeremy?" Yumi answered. "What's up?"

"It's time to go," I said.

"Alright," she said. "See you guys there."

"Right," I said, and hung up. I turned to the guys. "Let's head to the factory ASAP."

"Roger, captain!" Odd saluted, and we all jogged towards the entry to the factory in the park. We climbed into the sewers, and rode through the tunnels to the factory. Once we got to the ladder, we parked our vehicles and made our way to the factory's supercomputer room. Once I sat down in the chair, I put my hand up to my pocket, and Aelita climbed out of the pocket and into my hand. She smiled up at me as I moved my hand to the keyboard, and she hopped off my hand and onto the empty panel.

"You just need to get into a Replika and use the command module to activate a tower," I said. "Then, once you've done that, I'll launch the Replika scan from here, and we'll know where the right tower is."

"You got it, Jeremy," Yumi grinned. "We're on our way."

"See you around, Princess," Ulrich joked as he and the others descended in the elevator to the scanner room. I smiled back, and turned my attention to the screen. Cracking my knuckles, I sighed heavily.

"Here goes nothing," I said, and began the virtualization program. "Transfer, Odd. Transfer, Ulrich. Transfer, Yumi. Scanner, Odd. Scanner, Ulrich. Scanner, Yumi." I then hit the large enter key at the end of the sequence. "Virtualization."

===CODE LYOKO===

As I gazed at the supercomputer's screen and prepared the Replika scan program in the laboratory, Herb was staring into his own computer screen five kilometers away, back at the school. He typed furiously on his keyboard, trying to find something.

"I know it's here somewhere," he said to himself. "I planted the stupid bug in the stupid camera, so it should have recorded something." Another string of keystrokes yielded a newly created video file. "Aha! I found you!" he shouted in triumph. "Now let's see what you've got for me."

He double-clicked the file, and it opened a window to show a flickering screen. The harsh static soon settled down to a little more than an unnoticeable flicker as the video showed me entering my room.

"Alright, you smart-aleck," he grumbled, "What secret are you hiding that's keeping me from doing as good as you in this stupid school?"

Just then, Herb's jaw hit the floor as the recording showed me taking Aelita's miniature form out of my pocket and set her down on my desk, where she then sat down on my keyboard.

"What…the…" Herb stared at the screen in utter confusion. "Isn't that Odd's stupid foreigner cousin who's always hanging out with Jeremy? But what happened to her?" Just then, he gasped in shock. "Is this his secret? Did he invent a shrink ray or something to shrink Aelita? Or is he using her for his other crazy experiments? Oh, if he did, I'll never forgive him for doing something that I never did! Either way, I've gotta tell Nicolas and Sissi about this right away!"

With that, he plugged a flash drive into his computer, copied the file, and dashed off down the hall to Nicolas' room. He pounded on the door, and Nicolas answered it almost instantly.

"What is it now?" he asked lazily. "I was just starting to get some work done in here!"

"You don't have time to sleep, knucklehead," Herb shouted. "This is serious business, and it involves Jeremy and his little playgroup! They're up to something, Nicolas, and it's not pretty! You've got to see this for yourself!"

"See what?" he asked, and Herb whipped out his flash drive and plugged it into Nicolas' computer. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Just shut up and watch!" Herb said, pointing to the screen. As the images of me and the miniature Aelita flashed on the screen, Nicolas looked just as confused and surprised as Herb did when he first saw the images.

"Aelita?" he gawked. "What happened to her?"

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be showing this to you with more questions than answers, you nincompoop!" Herb shouted. "We still have to tell Sissi about this, she'll most likely want to know. This could be our ticket to bringing down Jeremy, Ulrich, and all of those stupid friends of theirs!"

"But, uh…" Nicolas started, "why do we need revenge?"

"You personally don't need it," Herb said. "You don't have anyone who's upstaged you like Jeremy or Ulrich have. If we get Sissi on our side, she'll help us take down Jeremy and Ulrich for good!"

"But what about Aelita?" Nicolas asked.

"What do you think we're going to do?" Herb asked. "We indiscreetly tell Jeremy that we know of his secret and that he'd better comply with our demands, or we'll tell everyone about this! Sissi is a big choice if we wanted this gossip to spread fast, so that'll give him even more incentive to back off."

"Back off of what?" Nicolas asked, still unsure of Herb's intentions.

"Of me achieving greatness in this dump!" Herb growled angrily. "This is my ultimate shot at revenge for everything Jeremy has beaten me in! Math, science, history, literature, robotics, even in gym he's better than me! No one even takes in the fact that I'm more fluent in Italian than he is! But now I'll be the one everyone looks up to and he'll be the outcast, just like how he should be!"

Nicolas furrowed his brow. He had never seen Herb act so angry before, and it scared him just a bit. The way he spoke about revenge and 'getting back' at Jeremy and Ulrich more than unnerved the normally dimwitted blond. Something was now very different about Herb, and it didn't sit well with Nicolas.

"Why do you have to get revenge against Jeremy and Ulrich?" he asked timidly. "What do you have against them?"

"How thick are you?"Herb snapped. "Jeremy gets all the praise for being a genius, like fame, prizes and a girlfriend, and what do I get? I get a pat on the head and yelled at by Jim every day for no good reason!"

"Uh…" Nicolas started, but could not finish for lack of words.

"I've heard enough support from you, Nicolas!" Herb said, with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, which was heavily dosed in anger. "I'm showing this to Sissi, and there's nothing you can do to stop me! Are you in with me or are you against me?"

The blonde knit his eyebrows in thought before hanging his head. "I guess I'm in," he sighed.

"That's good to hear," Herb smiled maliciously. "Now then, let's go see our club president to hear her opinion on our course of action." They started walking down the hall and then ascended the staircase to the girl's dormitory. "Not that her opinion matters to me," he added to himself. "I'm doing this whether anyone's with me or not."

===CODE LYOKO===

As the gang arrived at the Skid dock in Sector Five, I beamed them into the virtual submarine. Ulrich was seated in Aelita's command unit, and Yumi and Odd were in two of the Navskids.

"Is everything ready, Jeremy?" Ulrich asked.

"Ready and waiting, Ulrich," I said. I typed a code into the computer, and the screen in the Skid beeped and flashed green. "That should activate the Replika scan once you get into one. Just activate a tower and launch the program."

"Roger that, Einstein," he said. He then pushed the buttons on the throttle, and the Skid launched from its pad and flew out of Carthage and through one of the tubes to the Desert Sector. It then stopped in mid air and shot down into the digital sea.

"Holoweb system connected," I said as the Network map was synced with the supercomputer's holomap. "There should be a Replika just up ahead. According to my scans, it's a copy of the Ice Sector."

"Cool!" Odd said.

"Why must you insist on these awful jokes, you numbskull?" Ulrich asked.

"What you call awful, I call inspirational," Odd said.

"Oh, it's inspiring, all right," Yumi said. "Inspiration for bad jokes, all right."

"Hey!" Odd protested, but everyone just laughed loudly, including me and Aelita.

"All jokes aside," I said, "the Replika should be coming up on your radar very soon. Once you get inside, you know what to do."

"Got it," Ulrich said.

Suddenly, the blue sea turned red, and hordes of sharp teethed monsters charged at the Skid. The enemy monsters showed up as at least a dozen red dots on my screen.

"You've got company, guys!" I said. "At least half a dozen Kongres and a few Sharks are on your tail!"

"I'm on it, Jeremy!" Ulrich said, and then pushed a few buttons. "Release!" The two Navskids with Yumi and Odd inside of them detached from the Skid and rocketed towards the nautical monsters. Odd and Yumi managed to take out the Kongres, but they were too busy dodging the relentless attacks from the Sharks to strike back at them.

"I've got your backs, guys!" Ulrich said, and launched a virtual torpedo at the Sharks, blasting all three of them away instantly.

"Thanks for that, Ulrich!" Odd said. "We really owe you one!"

"No thanks needed," he grinned, and then pressed another series of keys. "Recovery." The Navskids flew back to the main ship and latched back onto it. Within a few more seconds, the ship arrived at its destination: a large mechanical dome shaped much like Lyoko. Ulrich pressed a series of keys and a beam of light shot out at the lock protecting the world. The door opened, and the submarine crossed through the door and into the Replika. It hovered up to a tower, and docked near it.

"We're ready with the program, Jeremy," Ulrich said, typing in another code. "Launching…now!"

A stream of red lights shot from the Skid and circled around the tower, and the tower turned from red to green.

"Success," I said. "The tower is under our control. I'm running the Replika scan right now."

I typed in a sequence and the gang saw the tower glow a brighter shade of green than it had before. It then launched a series of green rays from its top, and the rays flew into the digital sea.

"Okay," Ulrich said, "so what do we do now?"

"Now we just sit here and wait," I said dryly, and leaned back in the chair. From her seat on the keyboard, Aelita looked over at me with concern.

"Are you all right, Jeremy?" she asked.

"Well," I started, exhausted, "XANA used a tower that's now been wiped from the face of Lyoko to try and steal your code, which resulted in you being shrunk to nine centimeters tall. Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi were blasted to pieces by XANA before they could get you back to normal, and now we have to wait for who knows how long to find said tower and get you back to your normal size, so no, I'm not all right."

"Well," Aelita said irritably, "this is affecting me too, you know. Being half the size of Mister Puck isn't exactly how I wanted to spend my spring break."

I turned and looked at Aelita, and the full realization of the situation hit me. She was right. Not only was she smaller than she should be, but this predicament was keeping her from doing any of the things that she could have normally done if this had not happened. I sighed heavily in self disgust, and looked away from her for a moment.

"I'm sorry, Aelita," I said. "I hadn't thought about that at the moment."

"That's okay, Jeremy," she said. "It's not like we're in the same boat here, after all."

"Well, at least this situation can't get to much worse, right?" I grinned sheepishly.

===CODE LYOKO===

Herb and Nicolas arrived at Sissi's door, and they could hear a loud sound coming from her room, which sounded like a mix of every stereotype of female singers all blended into an off key drabble. Herb shuddered at the noise, and knocked hard enough on the door so that Sissi would be able to hear it through the music.

"Who is it now?" she yelled irritably through the door. Just then, the music stopped and the door opened to reveal the daughter of the school principal. She glared as she noticed who had knocked.

"Oh, it's you two," she groaned. "What could you two idiots possibly want?"

"It's just what I want this time," Herb said. "Nicolas is just here to be here. I have something that you need to see."

"Like what?" Sissi raised her eyebrow. "Is it another stupid nature show or lame foreign documentary again?"

"Oh, it's much better than any of that garbage," Herb snickered maliciously. "Just see for yourself, Sissi." He then brought out his flash drive and held it out to the girl. "Just plug this in and watch the fun."

"Okay," she said, rather nervously. There was something about Herb that set her off, but she couldn't tell what it was. And frankly, she could care less. Just then, something occurred to her.

"What exactly is so important about this thing, anyway?" she asked.

"Well," Herb started, "it could hold the key to getting Ulrich away from his friends and closer to you, if you wanted. Especially if you want him away from Yumi."

Sissi's face instantly lit up with glee. "Well, why didn't you say so in the first place? I'll pop this sucker in right now!" As she plugged the drive into her computer, the video opened up. When Sissi saw Aelita's miniature form on the camera, she couldn't help but look shocked and surprised.

"That's Odd's weird cousin who's got it on with Jeremy, isn't it?" she asked.

"Yes, it is," Herb said.

"But she's…sitting in his hand!" she exclaimed. "How is this even possible? Is it a robot, a doll, both, or something else?"

"That's what we're going to find out," Herb replied.

"What do you mean, 'we'?" Sissi asked.

"You wanted to make Ulrich yours, didn't you?" he asked. "This is a sure fire way to make it happen."

"How, exactly?" she asked.

"Simple," Herb replied. "We sneak into Jeremy's room, snatch Aelita, and hold her for ransom. Your ransom can be a date with Ulrich or whatever you want."

"I do like the sound of that," Sissi chuckled. "Okay, you've got yourself a deal, Herb Pichon." She held her hand out. "Don't disappoint me."

Herb shook her hand firmly, smiling. "I wouldn't dream of it, Sissi Delmas."

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**A/N: Uh-oh! Aelita's in trouble! Someone's coming 'round to burst her bubble! (Yeah, yeah!) The next chapter is coming soon!**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	6. Chapter 6: The Secret is Out

**A/N: Sorry that I haven't updated here in a while, work was hard and the Italian Festival didn't help. It rained like it was a monsoon. Mud everywhere. On the bright side, I did get Ni No Kuni and Duelist Toolbox, so it all evened out. Here's a new update and more are on the way real soon, I promise!**

**Code Lyoko (C) 2002-2013 MoonScoop, France 3. I don't own it. Support the OFFICIAL release. PLEASE.**

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Chapter 6 – The Secret is Out – Alternate Version

As I observed the calculations that the supercomputer was making in its scan of the Replikas, an alarm sounded and a screen with a red exclamation point lit up on the screen. Aelita and I jumped at the noise, and I was further shocked when I saw the reason for the message.

"What is it, Jeremy?" Aelita asked.

"It's a proximity alarm!" I said.

"Is someone at the factory?" she gasped.

"No," I replied, "there's someone in my room who's not supposed to be in there."

"That's it?" Aelita shot me a disbelieving look.

"It's someone who's not Jim or someone from the school faculty," I said, more hard toned.

"Like whom?" she raised her eyebrow.

"Well, let's find out," I said, clicking a few keys to show a video feed. It showed me exiting my room for lunch, and me shutting my door behind me. A minute afterwards, a boy with black hair and large circular glasses entered my room and attached something to my doorframe. He looked around my room, shifting a few things around, looked back at my door, and stuck something onto it, leaving once he did so. I instantly recognized the perpetrator, and I gasped in shock.

"It's Herb!" I said. "He did something in my room after we left!"

"Herb sneaked into your room?" Odd asked from the com link. "Did he take anything?"

"I don't know, let me check the footage again," I said as I flipped through the video. Once I got to a certain part, I paused and pointed at the screen. "It's just the opposite. He put something on my door when he went in, and then he just left. He almost put it near my…" I stopped short, realizing what this could mean.

"Herb put something near your what, Jeremy?" Yumi asked.

"One of my bedroom security cameras," I said, dazed.

"Security cameras?" Ulrich asked.

"Remember how I said that I had my own CCTV link in my room thanks to a couple of micro cameras that I hooked up in my room?" I said. "I said this when I once had Aelita's… uh… condition."

"Ooh, yeah," Ulrich said. "I remember that. You got shrunk by XANA like Aelita, and you showed us footage of you being shrunk on your computer."

"Wait a minute," Yumi said. "What did Herb put in your room?"

"I don't know," I said. "I can zoom in on the picture, but it's going to take a while to recognize what he put there." I paused the feed and enlarged the still image, sharpening it as I zoomed in. When I got a close enough look at the object, I recoiled from the screen in horror.

"Jeremy?" Aelita looked up at me with a panicked expression. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"It's…it's a bug," I said. "It's a computer bug that can use infrared technology to hack into camera feeds and stream the feed to remote locations. It's sort of hard to build, but so easy to operate that even Nicolas could do it."

"Hack into camera feeds?" Odd said. "Are you saying that Herb's trying to spy on you?"

"Maybe he's not just trying," I said.

"What do you mean?" Ulrich asked.

"Maybe he's already done it," I replied.

"What?!" Odd shouted. "Are you serious?"

"Well, what does that mean?" Yumi asked.

"It means that we need to fix this," I said, and typed in a new sequence. "Since we've deactivated a tower, maybe this is the key to fixing everything, even with Aelita." I finished the sequence and hit the large enter key. "Return to the past, now."

Nothing happened.

"Uh, Jeremy?" Odd said, "Nothing's happening. We're all still here. Where's the flashback light?"

"I don't know," I said, and retyped the sequence. "Return to the past, now!" I hit the enter key, but again, nothing happened.

"What's going on?" I shouted as I typed the sequence again, but still with no results. "I've entered this program again and again, time after time, and just now nothing happens?"

As I pondered the meaning behind this, a window appeared on my screen with a red exclamation point.

"Oh, no!" I cried.

"What is it, Jeremy?" Aelita asked. "What's wrong?"

"It's the return to the past program!" I said, "I can't run it! The supercomputer doesn't recognize it and refuses to run it!"

"What do you mean?" Ulrich said. "It's been running that program for years! How could it just now forget how to run it?"

"I don't know!" I yelled. "But now's not the time for panicking! We need to finish the scan of the Replikas and find that tower!"

"And how long will that take?" Yumi asked.

I glanced at the screens. "According to the scans, it should just take about another minute or so."

"That quick?" Aelita said. "It must have gone pretty fast when we were talking before."

"It did," I nodded, looking back at the screen, "and now it's done."

"It is?" Aelita looked at the screen. "Well, where is it?"

"I can't see anything yet," I started, but then I pointed at the screen. "There! There's an activated tower in an Ice Sector Replika!"

"Where is it on Earth?" she asked.

"It's in a lab in the middle of the Alps," I replied. "It's going to take a while to get there."

"Not if we're in the digital sea, Jeremy," Yumi said. "We're on our way now!"

"You do that," I said. "I'm going to head back to the dorms."

"What?" Odd shouted. "Why would you do that now and leave us here?"

"I need to find out what Herb's up to!" I said. "He may have figured out how to follow us to the factory! I'll stay connected with you guys through my mobile."

"What do you mean by that?" Yumi asked.

"I have a highly powered com link earpiece that's set up to the supercomputer that can operate with it from up to fifty kilometers away from the factory," I replied, taking said object out from a compartment under the keyboard and putting it into my ear. "I'll get back with you as soon as I've assessed the situation at hand."

"You're the boss, Einstein!" Ulrich said. "We're off!"

"See you around," I said, getting out of the chair. I looked at the keyboard and held my hand out to Aelita."Are you ready?"

"I'm ready, Jeremy," she said, and climbed into my hand. I smiled, slipped her into my pocket, exited the lab, and raced through the sewers back to the dorms. I slid out of the manhole and calmly walked back to the school, acting as if nothing was wrong. As I neared the dorm rooms, I started moving slowly so I wouldn't tip off Herb, if he was in his room.

"Is something wrong, Jeremy?" Aelita asked.

"Not yet," I said. "I'm going slowly so that no one, particularly Herb can tell if I'm coming to my room or not. I can't take a lot of chances here."

"I see," Aelita said.

I was able to get back to my room without anyone noticing, and I quickly and silently opened my door and shut it behind me. I glanced at the door, pretending not to notice my camera or the bug, and then my hand moved to my pocket. It hovered there, as I was unsure if I should take Aelita out of my pocket.

"Don't change anything about it, Jeremy," I heard Aelita say. "If you don't take me out, then Herb may get suspicious if he is watching this now."

"That's a good point," I said, and opened my pocket. Aelita climbed out of it and into my hand. I then moved my hand to my desk and placed it down on it. Aelita jumped off of my hand and onto my desk, sitting down near my keyboard. Just then, Aelita noticed something on my desktop's metallic wall.

"Jeremy, look at this," she said.

I looked at her, and she was pointing to a sticky note stuck onto my computer frame. I took it off and read it.

"We know your secret," I read aloud. "We are spying on you now. Come to the cafeteria within three minutes of receiving this note or we will expose your secret. Make sure to come alone and bring your secret with you."

My stomach dropped. "This isn't good."

"Well, you'd better go, Jeremy," Aelita said. "Don't tell the others yet, at least not until we're out of the camera's range."

"Of course," I said, and I scooped her up and placed her inside my pocket. I then exited my room and walked casually to the cafeteria.

"What do you think it meant when it said, 'we', Jeremy?" Aelita asked from the open pocket.

"I'm not sure," I replied, "but whatever it is, it can't be good. We'll find out for sure once we get to the cafeteria." I then pressed the button on my com link, and heard a small beep in my ear. "Guys?" I said. "Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, Einstein!" Odd called out cheerily from the other end of the link. "We're in the Replika, and we're about to activate the way tower. What's everything like on your end?"

"I got a note on my computer," I replied, "and Herb is telling me to go to the cafeteria to meet with him, or else he'll blow my secret to the whole school. It's strange, though."

"What is?" Yumi asked, "Besides the whole scenario?"

"The fact that he wrote 'we know' instead of 'I know'," I said.

"You don't suppose he told someone already, do you?" Ulrich asked.

"If he did," I replied, "this is worse than I thought. I'll talk with you later. Find that tower and deactivate it. Once you do, get back to Lyoko and deactivate the original tower. I'll return to the factory and launch the return to the past, and this will all be behind us."

"Well, good luck on your end Einstein," Odd said.

"And the same for you," I added, and cut off the link. As I did, I reached the double doors to the school cafeteria. I reached out and grasped the handles, and then I paused for a moment.

"This was going to happen sooner or later," Aelita said to me from my pocket. "Don't be scared, just go in there and give him what for, Jeremy."

"That I will," I said, and then opened the door.

To my surprise, I did not greet Herb, but instead I saw Nicolas at the table.

"Nicolas?" I asked, confused. "What are you doing here?"

Before I could answer, two surprisingly strong arms caught me out of nowhere and pulled my arms behind my back. I struggled to get a look at whoever had bound me, and I saw two figures grasping my arms, pulling them behind my back and keeping me in a strong hold.

"Herb? Sissi?" I reeled, not even remotely expecting them to be able to hold me back. "What are you two doing?"

"Making sure you don't try any funny business," Herb grunted. "Nicolas! Take my place here!"

"Uh, okay," Nicolas said, rather timidly. He moved behind me and grabbed my arm that Herb was holding. Herb then slinked in front of me, and glared at me.

"Now for the moment of truth," he snickered, and brought his hand to my chest.

"You hurt her and I hurt you back, you hear me?!" I shouted angrily.

"You're not the one to make threats, Einstein," he hissed angrily, "I am." He shoved his scrawny hand into my pocket, and pulled out Aelita, scared and struggling to get free of Herb's rough grasp.

"Let me go!" Aelita shrieked, wriggling in Herb's fist. "You're hurting me!"

"You heard her," I said. "Let her go. It's me you want, so leave her alone."

"I don't think so," Herb grinned, almost evilly. "Unless you do what we want, you'll never see her again. At least not in your possession." He looked at Nicolas and Sissi. "Tie him up."

The two led me to the chair that Nicolas sat in, forced me down into it, and tied my hands behind me with a small rope. Herb moved over to the table and dropped Aelita onto the table.

"I can't believe it," Nicolas said.

"Well, what do you know," Sissi grinned. "She is real, and totally puny. This should be fun."

"If you do anything to her, I'll…" I started.

"You'll do what?" Sissi teased. "Spit on me? I could call my father right now, and have you taken away to the nuthouse! In fact, I think I may do that right now!" She then pulled out her cell phone, much to my horror, but Herb cleared his throat.

"First he answers our questions," he said, "then you do what you want. Does that make sense?"

"I guess so," Sissi said, much confused by this new commanding Herb.

"What do want to ask me?" I asked.

"First off," Herb said, glaring at me, "is Aelita's being small the reason your grades have been sinking lately? Human experimentation, is it?"

"NO!" I shouted.

"Well, what is the reason you and your friends hang out all the time?" he barked.

"I'm not telling you!" I replied. "You have no idea what you're dealing with."

"Oh, I do," he said. "I'm dealing with a certain blond idiot who won't realize that he's been beaten and will refuse to part with his secret until a certain someone comes along to expose it."

"Even if you do," I said, "you could never hope to fully comprehend it." I then tilted my head, and switched on my ear bud com link. "Ulrich, Yumi, Odd!" I yelled, "are you in the Replika?"

"Ulrich just finished deactivating the tower when you called, Einstein!" Yumi said. "The activated tower back in Lyoko is ready to deactivate! Ulrich and Odd only had a few monsters in their way! According to the computer, it also brought back the return to the past program! We can run it from here once we're all done here!"

"Good," I said. "Head back to Lyoko, deactivate the original tower, and launch the Return to the Past! And hurry! I'm in a bind here, thanks to Herb!"

"Who are you talking to?" Sissi yelled.

"He's got a com link!" Herb said, reaching forward and yanking the device out of my ear. I screamed when he did so, and he smiled cruelly. "Think you can count on your friends?" he taunted. "Think again!" He threw the device against the wall, and it shattered into dozens of pieces upon impact.

"You're going to tell me what I want to know, Jeremy," Herb growled, leaning down to face me, "or I'll expose what you've done to Aelita to the entire school."

"I haven't done anything to her," I hissed. "I said it before, you don't know who or what you're dealing with."

"Perhaps I haven't made myself clear," he said. "Here's your options: You comply or let Aelita suffer. Make your choice."

* * *

**A/N: As I wrote this a week ago, I had another idea, but I hadn't written it down yet. I have now, and I will post it as a new chapter next update. Tonight, however, my little sister is nagging me to get off at 10 PM. Writing has no schedule, Temari Uzaku. I don't care if you are in Loki's army and I'm not, _I_ do what _I_ want.**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	7. Chapter 6: The Secret is Out - Alt Ver

**A/N: I'm sorry for posting this so late, but here it is! Next time, I'll make sure to make a schedule to regulate what time my sister gets on our computer. ****This is a version of Chapter 6 that made a lot more sense in my head.**

**Code Lyoko (C) 2002-2013 MoonScoop, France 3. I don't own it. If I did, we'd be watching Evolution dubbed with the cartoon voice actors and be reading the comics and books in English.**

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Chapter 6 – The Secret is Out – Revised Version

As I waited for the Replika scan to complete itself, I felt a vibration in my left leg. Realizing that this was my cell phone, I reached into my pocket and pulled it out, looking at it with a look of confusion in my eye.

"Now, who could that be?" I asked as I looked at the sender. "Huh? An unknown sender? It just shows as a number?"

"What shows as a number, Jeremy?" Aelita asked form the keyboard.

"A text message that I just now received," I replied, and then I opened the message. I gasped when I did, and my heart nearly stopped.

"What is it, Jeremy?" Aelita gasped, looking up at me. "What's wrong? What does it say?"

"It says, 'We know your secret. Meet us at the cafeteria in ten minutes or we will expose your secret to the whole school."

"What?" Aelita gasped. "Someone from the school knows about Lyoko? How is that even possible?"

"Maybe it's not about Lyoko," I said, "but we can't take any chances."

"Jeremy?" Yumi asked. "What's going on?"

"I got a text from someone from school," I replied, "and they said that they know about our secret."

"Lyoko?" Ulrich asked.

"Maybe, or maybe not," I said. I looked at the screen, and the Replika scan was finished and showing me the data. "Guys, the scan is complete. The tower is in an Ice sector Replika that's in a lab in the Alps."

"We're on the way, Einstein!" Odd said.

"You do that," I said, "and I'll head back to the school."

"But what about the supercomputer?" Ulrich asked. "Don't you need to operate it?"

"I can't communicate with you and observe Lyoko from the supercomputer if I'm at school," I said, "but I can do the latter from my laptop." I then reached under the keyboard, pulled out a small device, and stuck it inside of my ear. I took off the headset and turned on a switch on the device. "Can you hear me okay?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?" Ulrich inquired.

"I am now wearing a wireless communication device that is connected to the supercomputer," I replied, "and now I can communicate with you from up to 50 kilometers away from the factory."

"So you'll do that while you go to the school and get to the bottom of this text mystery," Yumi said, "and we'll head to the Replika and deactivate the tower."

"Hopefully Aelita's code she inputted can keep you able to deactivate towers for a while longer." I said.

"Her what?" Odd asked.

"Before you went inside the tower," I replied, "Aelita inputted a code that allowed you to deactivate towers."

"That would explain a lot," Ulrich said. "Okay, we'll get on with the tower."

"See you around," I said, slipping out of the chair. I looked at the keyboard and held my hand out to Aelita. "Are you ready, Aelita?"

"I'm ready, Jeremy," she said, and climbed into my hand. I smiled, slipped her into my pocket, and went to the elevator. I ascended to the main level, climbed up to the bridge, dashed across it, climbed into the sewers, and raced through the sewers on my scooter back to the dorms. I stopped at the ladder at the school, climbed the ladder, crawled out of the manhole, and calmly walked back to the school, acting as if nothing was wrong. As I neared the dorm rooms, I started moving slowly so I wouldn't tip off Herb, if he was in his room.

"Is something wrong, Jeremy?" Aelita asked.

"No, not yet," I said. "I'm just making sure that I don't look conspicuous while I get my laptop."

"Why are you getting your laptop?" she asked.

"If they want Lyoko," I answered, "it's the easiest way that isn't going to the factory."

"I see," Aelita said.

I was able to get back to my room without anyone noticing, and I quickly and silently opened my door and shut it behind me. Aelita peeked out from my pocket to get a look around. I then went to my desk, took my computer from its place, stuffed it into my laptop bag, and slung my bag over my shoulder.

"Here we go," I said, sighing heavily. "Five minutes left, and then it all breaks loose if I don't show."

"You'll show them what they want to see," Aelita said, "but when you show them, they won't remember a thing when we're done."

"Exactly," I smiled as I headed to the cafeteria.

As I walked to the cafeteria, I was surprised to find that no one was out at all, not even Jim.

"Kinda spooky," I said to myself.

"What is?" Aelita asked.

"There's no one here," I answered.

"Well, the other students are probably home or in their rooms," Aelita said. "It is after dark after all."

"Good point," I said, "but I still feel like something is very wrong here."

"Join the club," Aelita nodded, shivering in my pocket.

As I finished, I approached the cafeteria. When I opened the door, I had no idea who I would meet. I felt that it would be Sissi, but it was someone I had not expected in the least. Herb Pichon was sitting in one of the tables, and faced me. Nicolas sat next to him, but he was not looking at me.

"Herb?" I asked, quite confused. "What are you doing here?"

"You'll find out," he replied. "Nicolas, you know what to do."

"Uh, okay," Nicolas said, but I could tell there was a slight bit of hesitation in his tone.

Just then, a slender figure stepped out from the shadows and bound my arms behind my back. Nicolas moved behind me and joined the perpetrator in holding me. I turned around, and noticed just who else had me in this hold.

"Sissi?" I said, very surprised to find her able to restrain me. "What are you doing?"

"They're here to ensure there won't be any inconveniences," Herb said, getting up, and moving towards me. He stepped up to me, and reached his hand out to my shirt.

"What are you doing, Herb?" I asked.

"It's the moment of truth, Jeremy Belpois," he said. "I'm about to unveil the greatest secret to shock Kadic Academy!" he then thrust his hand into my pocket and pulled out Aelita, who was scared out of her mind and trying as hard as she could to break out of Herb's callous grip.

"Aelita! No!" I shouted. I then realized the truth: Herb was not only the one who sent the text message, but he also somehow knew about Aelita being shrunk!

"Let me go!" Aelita whimpered, writhing in Herb's clenched fist. "I can't breathe! You're hurting me!"

"Well, what do you know!" Sissi laughed haughtily. "She really did get shrunk! This'll get first page on the Kadic Academy Inquirer for sure!"

"There isn't a Kadic Academy Inquirer!" I said.

"Now there is!" she laughed. Herb moved to the table and dropped Aelita onto the table. She struggled to get up, since she was dropped roughly, and as the raven haired witch hovered over her, Herb led me to the chair and brought out a small rope. He forced me to sit down in the chair, and tied me to it. He then took my laptop bag from me and slammed it onto the table.

"That's a 2000 Euro laptop you'll be paying for if it's broken!" I yelled.

"You're not the one who should be making threats, Jeremy," Herb said. "You're hardly in any position to do anything of the sort. Besides, you should be less worried about your stupid laptop and more about what we're going to do to your 'little' girlfriend."

"If you lay one hand on her, you will feel the full extent of my wrath," I hissed venomously, "and that's something you don't want to see." I turned to Sissi. "Don't think you're safe behind your father, you witch. Mr. Delmas and I have a closer connection than you know, and you would do well to not make me find use for it."

"He's just bluffing," Herb said. "All we want to know is the answers to a few questions. If you answer them, then you and Aelita are free to go and we won't breathe a word of this to any living soul."

"You're the one who's bluffing," I growled.

"Does a respectable scientist in training lie?" Herb asked, a glint of charm in his eye. "Trust me, I'll take this secret to my grave. Scout's Honor." He made the three fingers Scout salute, and I spit in his face. "Feisty, but it won't do you any good, you jerk." He then sat down opposite to me. "Sissi, make sure that Aelita does not distract Jeremy here while I ask him my questions. Is that clear?"

"Uh, sure thing," Sissi said, looking just as confused by this new, commanding Herb as Aelita and I were. Speaking of which, as I thought of this, Sissi swooped Aelita off the table before I could object and held her in a less tight fist than Herb's, but she looked a lot more menacing when she held her.

"Hm, this should be fun," she snickered maliciously.

"That's enough," Herb said, and Sissi looked at the ground.

I took in a breath and looked at Herb, and his face was a fearful mix of jealousy, anger, and wrath. I looked at Sissi, and she was enjoying the moment of having complete control over Aelita, but she was also looking at Herb like something was wrong with the bespectacled boy. Nicolas looked the same way, apart from the having fun part. In fact, he looked a lot like he didn't want to be part of this at all.

"What do want to ask me?" I asked, turning to face Herb again.

"First off," Herb said, glaring at me, "is this thing really Aelita?"

"Yes, she is!" I shouted. "Are you happy now?"

"Is Aelita's new size the reason your grades have been sinking lately?" he barked. "You're the one who shrunk Aelita, aren't you?"

"No, I am not!" I yelled.

"Lies!" Herb shouted back. "Are you doing human experiments?"

"Absolutely not!" I writhed in my restraints. "That kind of science is sick and wrong, and I would not perform that action on any human being if my life depended on it!"

"And I'm a monkey's uncle," Herb said.

"Okay, now I have a question," I said angrily. "How'd you even know about this in the first place?"

"Simple," he answered. "I learned that you have a network of hidden cameras in your room…"

"By sneaking into it while I was away, I assume?" I growled.

"I prefer to call it otherwise," he said. "Anyway, I put a bug next to the camera on the door to your dorm room, and it recorded the footage of you and Aelita for me."

"You slime," I hissed.

"Why, thank you," he barked. "Okay, next question: What is the reason you and your friends hang out all the time? What is it that you do? Is it the reason why Aelita has been shrunk?"

"I'm not telling you!" I replied. "You have no idea what you're dealing with."

"Oh, I do," he said. "I'm dealing with a certain blond idiot who won't realize that he's been beaten and will refuse to part with his secret until a certain someone comes along to expose it."

"Even if you do," I said, "you could never hope to fully comprehend it." I then sharply tilted my head, and switched on my ear bud com link. "Ulrich, Yumi, Odd!" I yelled, "are you in the Replika?"

"Ulrich just deactivated the tower when you called in, Einstein!" Yumi said. "The activated tower back in Lyoko is ready to deactivate! Ulrich and Odd only had a few monsters in their way, it was good and easy for them!"

"That's great to hear," I said. "Head back to Lyoko, deactivate the original tower, and launch the Return to the Past!"

"We can do that from here?" Odd asked.

"You can run the return to the past program from the Skid command unit once you're all done there!" I said. "Just look in the database for the program and run it! And hurry! Herb's got me in a bind here!"

"Herb's got you what?" Yumi asked.

"What's going on, Einstein?" Odd piped up.

"There's no time to explain!" I shouted. "I'll try to explain later! Deactivate the tower and launch the program! It's the only way to fix Aelita and save the both of us!"

"What the heck are you talking about?" Herb shouted.

"He's calling out for those losers?" Sissi yelled.

"Where are they?" Nicolas asked, looking around the room, expecting to see someone there.

"Hey, he's got a com link in his ear!" Herb said, reaching forward and yanking the device out of my ear. I screamed when he did so, and he smiled cruelly. "So, you think you can count on your friends to save you and your girlfriend?" he taunted, clenching the ear piece in his fist. "Think again!" He threw the device against a faraway wall, and we all could hear it shatter into dozens of pieces upon impact.

"That earpiece was also 1000 Euros, just in case you were wondering," I said through my teeth.

"Like I care at all," Herb growled, leaning down to face me, "You're going to tell me what I want to know, Jeremy, or I'll expose what you've done to Aelita to the entire school."

"I haven't done anything to her," I hissed. "I said it before and I'll say it again, you don't know who or what you're dealing with."

"Perhaps I haven't made myself clear," he said. "Here's your options: You comply or let Aelita suffer. Make your choice."

* * *

**A/N: I'm working on Chapter 7 as I type this, and should have it done before the middle of the week, end of it at the latest, but my schedule is as wild as a manga character's hair. Oh well... stay tuned until next time!**

**-JeremyX signing off!  
**


	8. Chapter 7: Stalling for Time

**A/N: SORRY FOR THE LONG DELAY, BUT MY DAD BANNED ME FROM THE COMPUTER FOR A WEEK SINCE I FINISHED THE LAST CHAPTER! This chapter is nice and long, though! SO, I hope you'll be satisfied until I've finished working on Chapter 8!**

**Code Lyoko (C) 2002-2013 MoonScoop, France 3. I, the author of this FanFiction, make no material gain from this. Please support the official release.**

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Chapter 7 – Stalling for Time

For a long while, and for one of the only times in my life, I was at a loss as for what to do next. Either I would jeopardize my friends and our mission to stop XANA, or risk Herb revealing Aelita's new condition to the rest of the school. After mulling it all over in my head for what seemed like hours when it was only a minute or two, I sighed in defeat. "Okay, Herb. You win. I'll tell you everything about what you want to know."

"That's much better," Herb smiled, backing away from me. "Now, what exactly is going on here?"

"If you will kindly give me my computer, I can show you," I said, as calmly as I could.

Herb took my computer bag from across the table, and shoved it over to me.

"At least try to be a little bit careful," I said. "I may have mentioned it to you before, but maybe you forgot it. That thing is very expensive, and, in case you were wondering, it contains the secret you so desperately want from me."

"Whatever you've got on that, you've got on your desktop," Herb said. "I'm not the least bit worried about your stupid laptop."

I furrowed my brow in suspicion. "There's something different about you, Herb, isn't there?"

He whipped his head around and glared at me. "What do you mean by that?"

"Am I the only one in this room who sees that Herb has changed a lot?" I asked, looking at Nicolas and Sissi. They looked at me with a look of surprise, but then stared the ground and said nothing. I knew that they knew it, but they obviously didn't have the guts to speak up or they would have done so by now.

"You're not normally like this," I said. "You do have a tendency to get really angry very easily, but I don't think I've ever seen you act like this before."

"What is that supposed to mean?" he asked angrily.

"You do realize, of course, that your current tone is proving my point, Herb," I said calmly.

"What tone?" he barked.

"The one that you're using right now, genius," I snickered.

"Who cares what 'tone' I'm using as long as I get what I want?" Herb hissed. "I should be the smartest kid in school, and I was before you showed up! But once you've confessed your secret to me, you have to step down as the King of Grades, or else Aelita's gonna be in pictures all over the city!"

"You wouldn't dare!" I shouted.

"Oh, I would most certainly dare," Herb grinned evilly. "You said it yourself; I can do some pretty crazy things when I am provoked. Some I wish I didn't have to do, others I'm more than happy to do."

"And this?" I asked.

"To be perfectly honest," he replied, "I'd be more than ecstatic to do this with or without your little girlfriend. Of all the little members of your playgroup, I hate you and Ulrich most of all! Especially you!" He pointed a finger at me, and it was twitching with a seething rage.

"Okay, this is a new side of you, Herb," I said. "Why, pray tell, do you hate me?"

"Just look at yourself!" he shouted. "You've got the best grades, you've got friends, and you've even got a GIRLFRIEND!" He pointed to Aelita, who was held loosely in Sissi's hand. I noticed that she was also trembling, most likely because of Herb's yelling which was probably deafening to her diminutive hearing.

"All the kids like you," he went on, "and all of the teachers praise you and say how wonderful and intelligent and well-behaved you are, and what do I get for my hard work? Neglect and indifference from the teachers, whaled by Jim, and laughed at by all of the other students in the entire freaking school!"

"Well, once you see what's on this," I said, still calm on the outside but hiding my inner shock at Herb's outburst, "you'll never hear of or from me again. You'll once again be the Kadic King of Grades, as you put it."

"Are you serious?"Herb asked, raising an eyebrow. "You'll really get worse grades on purpose and let me back into the spotlight?"

"If it protects Aelita and my friends, I'll do anything," I said."Now, if you could please untie my hands, I'll show you what's on this computer that you wanted to see."

"Nicolas," Herb said, finally calming down, "go and untie him, but make sure he doesn't try anything funny."

The tall blond nodded, and walked behind my chair. As he untied the ropes, I glanced at him.

"I know what you mean," he whispered to me, "but he won't listen to me. Maybe it's best just to let him burn himself out and hope he'll go back to normal after he burns off this steam. Listen, I'm sorry about all this. I didn't want for this to happen, especially not to Aelita."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, I guess," I said. "Don't worry, I have a plan, but I can't explain. You'll soon see it for yourself, though." As I said this, my hands were free, and I rotated my wrists to get the feeling back into them. I stretched my arms and opened my laptop. I then handed Nicolas the power cable for my laptop.

"Plug this in for me, would you?" I asked him. "I forgot that this thing's battery was about to die out."

"Uh, okay," he said, and plugged the cable into a socket close to the table. As soon as he did, my laptop screen glowed brighter to show that it was plugged in and charging, and I opened the map of Lyoko. As the screen glowed, the three students' eyes got noticeably wider. Aelita shuddered in fear of the three discovering Lyoko, but I shot her a look of reassurance. She nodded, and continued to let me do my work.

"What the heck is all of this?" Herb asked, looking at the screen with much curiosity.

"This is something I stumbled upon while I was trying to make robots," I said. "It's a virtual world that is connected to our world by a powerful supercomputer."

"What's it called?" he asked.

"Its name is Lyoko," I said, "and it's probably one of the most advanced technological advancements of our time."

"Even more than cell phones?" Sissi asked.

"Sissi," I chuckled, and then pointed to the images on my computer, "this virtual world right here makes the most advanced cellular telephone on earth look more primitive than the very first telephone made by Mr. Alexander Gram Bell himself. It outdates almost every single modern advancement of this very decade, and maybe even of this entire century."

"Did you make all of this?" Nicolas asked.

"I said I discovered it, Nicolas," I said. "I found the supercomputer and the mainframe which allowed me to access Lyoko in an old, abandoned, and dilapidated factory outside of the Boulogne-Billancourt area of the city."

"That's a long way away from school, isn't it?" Herb asked. "That's almost 17 kilometers away from here."

"16.8 kilometers, to be exact," Jeremy said. "But I discovered that this computer was built by a famous computer scientist and engineer who did some work for the government quite a few years back."

"Who?" all three asked.

"Don't tell them, Jeremy!" Aelita yelled. "You can't! You promised!"

"Be quiet!" Herb yelled. Aelita shrieked and covered her ears with her hands.

"You're the one who should be quiet," I said softly. "Not only could you alert Jim, but you're seriously hurting Aelita's hearing right now!"

"Yeah, don't hurt her!" Nicolas said. "You promised that, remember?"

"Fine," Herb growled, lowering his voice. "So who is this guy?"

"For a long time, I couldn't find that out," I said. "He left almost no trace of who he was in the entire layout. But I did find a clue when I turned it on. There were two things inside of the virtual world that I was able to communicate with. One was a being who could not remember her name; the other was a malevolent artificial intelligence that I almost wish I never knew about. This AI is known as XANA."

"XANA?" Herb asked. "What kind of thing was it?"

"Well, it's kind of like a virus," I said, "but he can gain control over computerized and electrical devices. He's even recently gained the power to come into our world and possess human beings."

"That's super creepy," Sissi cringed.

"That's not even the half of it," I said. "He was supposed to destroy a powerful program that the government had developed to take over the country, but XANA imprisoned its own creator in this world because he wanted him out of the way and took the power of Carthage for himself, becoming one with the program that it was created to destroy."

"What's Carthage?" Nicolas asked.

"It's the military program that XANA was made to destroy," I said. "It was named after that ancient city of Carthage, where men and women were sacrificed to the goddess Kali by the priest-warrior Hannibal, who was eventually slain by Major General Scipio Africanus of the Imperial Army of the Roman Empire."

"Alright, enough with the history lesson," Herb said. "What about the rest of it? How did you connect your cheesy setup in your room to the supercomputer at the factory?"

"I used a high powered modem to wirelessly connect two internet networks, the one in my room and the one at the factory, into one network that only I can access on my computer. I've been using it ever since to help my friends combat this evil virus."

"What makes you say that it's evil?" Sissi asked.

"It's tried to kill us and destroy the human race at least 16 times in the past year," I said, "and each and every time we have thwarted it from succeeding in its twisted goals."

"What do you mean by 'we'?" Herb asked.

"What do you think I mean?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "My friends and I are the ones who combat XANA and protect all of your ungrateful backsides from certain destruction."

"How do you do that?" Nicolas asked.

"We go to Lyoko ourselves," I answered. "Well, Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi are really the ones who go there. I just sit in a chair and pilot them from above. Aelita helps out by going to Lyoko as well. As a matter of fact, that's how we came to meet her in the first place."

"Then how come we've never heard of this before?" Nicolas asked.

"We go to great lengths to keep all of this of the utmost secrecy," I said. "No one else on Earth knows about this or has even heard of this, save for you three."

Herb rose from his chair and leaned back into a nearby bookcase, stunned by the information that I had just presented to him. I grinned, satisfied with myself. I had a secret plan of my own that I had been formulating ever since Aelita had been shrunk in the first place, and it was going along as smooth as newly spread butter. What the others failed to notice was that I had just shown a picture of the gang on the Ice Replika, about to deactivate the tower and fix everything. I got up from my chair, closed my computer, and slipped it into its carrying bag. Herb soon got up from his slouching, and walked over to me, and glared at me.

"Show it to me," he said. "Take me and the others to the factory. I have to see this thing for myself."

I smiled. "Anything you want, Herb."

"Jeremy, are you insane?" Aelita called out. "You can't take Herb to the factory, he'll…!"

"He'll do what?" I asked her. "He already knows about the factory anyway, so it's only fair that he sees it for himself." I turned to him. "I'll take you there, but on one condition."

"Let's hear it," he grinned, folding his hands together.

"You give Aelita back to me now," I said, holding out my hands.

"Sissi?" Herb asked, turning to the raven haired girl.

"It's your call," she said, "but you should know that while Herb and you were having your little science quarrel, I took pictures of her on my phone. Cross any of us, and they WILL go viral."

"You have my word," I smiled, giving a mock bow and salute.

"Very well," Herb nodded. "You can have your little girlfriend back. After all, she's of no use to us now that we have footage of our own. Give her to Jeremy, Sissi."

Sissi held Aelita by her shirt between her index finger and her thumb, and I held my hands just below hers, and she dropped Aelita into my hands. She scrambled to get away from Sissi's line of view, and gazed up at me, shaking from the recent adventure but sighing that she was safely back with me.

"Are you okay, Aelita?" I asked her, raising her up to my eye level.

"I'm just fine," she said. "I'm a bit roughed up, but there's nothing that's been hurt too bad. I'm just glad I'm with you now." She wrapped her arms around my thumb, and I couldn't help but blush just a little bit.

"Enough hugging already," Herb hissed. "Are we going or not?"

"Alright," I groaned, rather annoyed. "Just follow me."

I peeked out the cafeteria door, looked both ways to make sure that no one was watching, and then motioned for Herb, Sissi, and Nicolas to follow me. After slipping Aelita in my pocket, I quickly jogged towards the park, with the others close behind me.

"Hey, I have one more question," Herb said as we arrived the park.

"What's that?" I asked, as I led them through the maze of trees to the secret entrance.

"It's two questions, now that I think about it," he replied. "One: how did Aelita get shrunk in the first place? Two: what was that you were saying about a replica earlier?"

"In order," I answered, "XANA was the one who shrunk Aelita by using a program to extract her virtual genetic code, but I stopped it before XANA could get too much of her code. Secondly, these Replikas are creations of XANA that are duplicates of certain sectors on Lyoko. XANA has made several throughout the world, and has been pooling all of their energy together for an unknown reason."

"What reason?" Nicolas asked.

"I just said it's an unknown reason," I said, more than slightly annoyed with Nicolas' dimwittedness. "However, whatever he's planning, I know it won't be good."

"Well, once we see this thing for ourselves," Herb said, "you can go right back to doing it, and we won't breathe a word of this to anyone."

"And do you also swear to not reveal the pictures or video footage to anyone?" I asked.

"As long as you fulfill your end of the bargain," Herb smiled cruelly, "so will we."

"That I will," I said, and then stopped once we got to the manhole cover.

"What did you stop for?" Sissi asked.

"Look at the ground in front of you," I responded, pointing to the manhole cover below. The others looked at it, and stared at it in wonder as I removed the large heavy iron disk to reveal the tunnel network in the sewers that led from the school to the factory.

"Amazing," Herb said, and followed me as I climbed down the ladder and into the sewers. I noticed my scooter where I left it along with Aelita's scooter, and I unlocked them both. I hopped on my scooter and offered Aelita's scooter to Herb.

"Are you ready?" I asked.

"As ready as I've ever been," he snickered, and took the handle from my hands.

The two of us rode on, me leading the way while Herb stayed close behind and the others sprinted to keep up with us. I rode slowly enough so that Sissi and Nicolas would not have to run very fast to catch up to Herb and I, and so that Aelita would be more comfortable. After a few minutes of me and Herb riding and Sissi and Nicolas walking, we arrived at the ladder to the factory. I looked back, and noticed that Herb was looking up at the ladder in amazement, while Nicolas and Sissi had just stopped running and were panting to catch their breath.

"Well, this is it," I said. "Everyone, we're going up."

Herb smiled, and Sissi and Nicolas gave a tired thumbs-up. I then locked my scooter next to the ladder and started climbing up the ladder. Herb just tossed Aelita's scooter carelessly aside, and climbed up after me. I sighed at this, but knew that it would all be over soon. As we broke through to the surface, Herb and the others gazed at the factory in sheer awe.

"I've never seen anything like it," Herb sighed.

"It looks just like a dumb old dump," Sissi shrugged.

"It's not what's on the outside that counts, Sissi," I said. "It's what's on the inside that we're here for."

I led them across the remainder of the bridge to the factory gates, and slid down the rope to the floor. The others followed behind me, and I led them to the elevator. I pressed the button as we all got inside, and the machine descended to the mainframe room. After a minute, the doors opened, and the three new guests were greeted by the immense room that held the supercomputer's mainframe.

"It's unbelievable," Herb said.

"It's huge!" Sissi gawked as she turned around to look at everything.

I jumped in the chair and put on the headset. "Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, can you hear me?"

"Jeremy?" Yumi asked from the other end. "Good grief, what happened to you? One minute you were yelling into our ears, the next minute you were cut off and we couldn't hear you anymore! What in the world happened over there?"

"It's a long story," I said. "I'll explain later. Are you guys at the tower yet?"

"We just got there when you called in, Einstein," Ulrich said, "and XANA has just now sent his welcoming committee."

"Well, just get rid of the monsters and deactivate the tower," I said. "We've got trouble, and my plan can't be ruined now."

"What plan?" Odd asked. "What trouble?"

"I had no choice," I replied, "but Herb, Nicolas, and Sissi ambushed me and nearly blew everything about Aelita to the whole school."

"WHAT?!" Yumi shouted. I hissed at this, and took out the earpiece to get the ringing out of my ears. "THAT GIRL IS GOING TO GET IT FOR SURE WHEN WE GET BACK TO SCHOOL!"

"That's won't be necessary, Yumi," I replied. "They're already here at the factory."

"What?" Now it was Ulrich's turn to yell in shock. "Why would you bring them here?"

"Relax," I said. "It's all going to be just fine."

However, as soon I said this, the computer made a series of being noises and showed off a number of alarm windows.

"What's going on?" Herb asked.

"There's something coming out of one of the scanners that isn't any of the other guys," I said, typing away at the keyboard. Aelita had just now peeked out form her perch to see what was happening.

"What's happening, Jeremy?" she asked.

"I don't know," I replied. "The scanners have materialized some kind of energy, and now the energy, whatever it is, is coming up the elevator towards us."

"What?" Sissi shrieked.

Suddenly, the door to the supercomputer room hissed open, and a figure emerged from it. It was a young man with dark bluish hair clad in a leather jacket and black denim jeans, along with a young girl, no older than the boy, with light rose colored hair which was styled almost like…

"Aelita?" I gasped, seeing the girls' face resembled Aelita's almost exactly. I then gasped again, realizing who was with this other Aelita.

"But she's right here!" Herb shouted. "This doesn't make any sense at all!"

"More to the point," Sissi said, "what's William doing here?"

"Do you remember when I said that XANA can possess people?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied.

"You're looking at living proof," I said as the possessed youth gave a crooked smile and advanced at us, along with the mysterious girl.

* * *

**A/N: To sum this up, here's a song parody:  
**

**Oops, I did it again  
I played with your minds  
Got lost in the plot  
Oh, babies, babies  
**

**Oh, you think I'm an ass  
With no sense of class  
I'm not that egocentric**

**I'll update as soon as I can! You have my word as an Asgardian (not really, but I wish I was)!**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


	9. Chapter 8: Sizing Up a Problem

**A/N: Here it is, ladies and germs, the last chapter of this masterpiece! I will explain the Easter Eggs in my last chapters at the end of this one, for those who weren't keen on them before.**

* * *

Chapter 8 – Sizing Up a Problem

As the two figures moved closer to us, I slipped out of the chair and instinctively scooped up Aelita in my hand and slipped her into my shirt pocket. Herb, Sissi, and Nicolas all moved behind me, cowering before these new entities.

"What do you mean, 'we're looking at living proof', Jeremy?" Sissi asked."What are you talking about?"

"I meant that William is living proof of XANA's power to control and manipulate human beings," I replied.

"That XANA thing is controlling William?" Herb asked, shocked. "When and how did this happen?"

"To make a long story short," I replied, "William had saved our skins a lot in the past, but we had to exclude him from our club because he was too cocky and he repeatedly went against our best interests. He still was as egotistical when he went to Lyoko for the first time about half a year ago."

"That was right about the time when he disappeared!" Sissi gasped. "So William was controlled by XANA this whole time?"

"That's right," I replied. "He even succeeded in destroying Lyoko while he was still inside of it, which resulted in XANA fusing himself with William. Every byte of XANA's being is flowing through William's veins right now as we speak. What's worse is that we can't get him back because he fell into the digital sea."

"Why is that bad?" Nicolas asked.

"Those who fall into the digital sea," I replied, with a dark look, "will remain virtualized forever."

"Well, that's not a pleasant thought," Sissi said, making a face. "Wait, but I saw him in history class just yesterday!"

"Well, I created a digital clone of William to stand in for him while I find a way to set him free from XANA's control."

"Well, that explains his intelligence level," Sissi said, rubbing her chin, "But how does that explain the Aelita double?"

"On that subject," I replied. "I have absolutely no idea at all. But whatever it is, it can't be good."

"What can't be good?" I heard Ulrich call out from the head set that I still had plugged into my ear.

"Oh, it's nothing," I said sarcastically. "It's just that William's been materialized in our own scanners and there's and evil Aelita clone as well, and both are about to kill the four of us. In short, it's nothing that's too bad or unusual."

"You call this not bad or unusual?" Herb shrieked.

"When you've seen the things we've seen," I said back, "there's nothing that can surprise you."

"Well, you're about to have some more of you," Ulrich said back. "A Tarantula just shot Odd in a blind spot, and he's heading back as we speak. I'll be sure to protect Yumi and myself so that either one of us can deactivate the tower."

"Roger," I said. "You do that, and we'll hold down the fort here."

As I took the headset out of my ear, William and the Aelita clone both grinned evilly, the Eyes of XANA glowing bright red around their pupils, and their hands started flashing purple and crackling with XANA's electrical powers coursing through their bodies. But just as they were about to advance on us, the elevator door hissed behind us, and a slender figure slinked out and caught William by surprise, grabbing his shoulder.

"Ah, ah, ah," Odd teased, wagging his finger. "Didn't your mother ever teach you that playing with electricity is extremely dangerous?" Just then, he caught sight of the other figures in the room with him and William, and he raised an eyebrow.

"What are you crazy people standing around for?" Odd asked. "Don't you know that this is the part where you're supposed to run for your life?"

"Well, I know that," I said irritably, "but these clowns are totally ignorant to any of this!"

"Hey, I resent that!" Nicolas said.

"Whatever," Odd said, and he whipped his foot around, making contact with William's side. He was kicked back a meter or so, and he and the Aelita clone growled at Odd. William advanced on him, and the Aelita clone made a cyber dash at us, black smoke trailing behind her. When she reached out to my chest, I balled up my fists, and ran towards the Aelita clone, and she nearly missed my rather sloppy left hook.

"You keep away from her!" I shouted, and lunged at the specter again. I reached out for the clone, trying out a bold but vain attempt to toss it over my shoulder. But when I grabbed at the specter's arm, my hand connected with warm, solid flesh instead of the cold, empty air that I had expected my hand to pass through. I was stunned momentarily by this new phenomena, and my opponent looked like she was going to take advantage of it, but then I snapped out of my trance and threw the impostor to the ground.

"Nice toss, Einstein!" Odd shouted.

"I'll remember to thank Jim for that," I shot back. "I did pick it up from his special training, you know."

As Odd chuckled, I heard a whimpering noise coming from the ground. The Aelita clone was covering her face and looked up at me with a fearful look in her face.

"Jeremy," said the voice of Aelita, "why did you hurt me?"

I was so shocked that couldn't move for a while. I was scared to think that I had actually hurt Aelita, but then the clone gave a quick sneer and a mule kick to my gut, reeling me backwards. I could feel the real Aelita open up my pocket, crawl out of it, and climb up to my shoulder as I stood stunned from the sudden and unwelcome impact.

"Don't be fooled, Jeremy!" she shouted into my ear, which startled me. "Remember: it's a clone of me that was created by XANA! It's not the real me! You would never really hurt me!"

I turned my head around to look at her, and as she smiled, I smiled back. "Thanks for that, Aelita."

"That's what I'm here for, Einstein," she winked playfully as I scooped her up and placed her back into my pocket. I then looked at the three in the corner, who stood in a daze.

"What just happened?" Herb asked, looking very confused.

I was about to respond when the supercomputer made a series of whirring noises and I sat down in the chair in order to view the images that were now flashing on the screen. "Well, I just learned more about this other Aelita," I answered. "That's the materialization of the code that XANA stole from her."

"You mean that's what XANA stole from me?" Aelita asked, poking out of my pocket.

"That's the deal," I said, pointing to the monitor with one hand and taking her out of my pocket with the other hand. I looked at her, and she was kneeling in the center of my palm, looking up at the monitor with wide eyes. "This must be what XANA was driving at this whole time. He didn't attack us this whole time because he was waiting for this moment, when he could have two human bodies under his control as opposed to just one."

"Hey, guys," I said, motioning for the Sissi, Herb ,and Nicolas to approach. "I need you to do a favor and help Odd keep William and the Aelita clone busy while I try to guide Ulrich and Yumi on Lyoko."

"How can we help?" Nicolas asked. "We can't run something like this."

"You don't have to," I said. "You will just have to make sure that the ones over there don't get to me. Think of it like a game of 'protect the flag', and I'm the flag."

"Okay," Nicolas said, now beginning to understand my plan. "What do we have to do?"

"Just do something to keep William and the fake Aelita busy while I help Yumi and Ulrich to get all of this back to normal."

"But won't that be like hurting Aelita?"Nicolas asked.

I then pointed to the Aelita clone. "I can tell you right now, Nicolas," I said, "that while that thing is Aelita in shape and form, she is not the real Aelita. Besides, in case you haven't noticed, this clone is shorter than Aelita's actual height."

"By how much?" Sissi asked. "I can't tell from here, and William isn't a good comparison since he's already tall."

"Exactly nine centimeters," I grinned.

"But that's how tall I am now!" Aelita said.

"And that's exactly the point!" I said. "XANA had copied every part about you, except for your height. He only drained 94 percent of your height and added it to the clone's height by the time I launched the emergency program to return you to Earth."

"You made an emergency program to bring me back to Earth if the Schyphozoa caught me?" Aelita looked up at me in surprise.

"Well, what else did you think that I was doing on all those nights?" I snickered. "Did you think that I was looking at viral internet videos or something stupid like that?"

"Well, I actually thought that you were…" Aelita started, but was cut off by a harsh grating noise that sounded like steel scraping against steel. We both turned around to see the source of the noise, and we saw that Odd held a long and thick pipe in his hand and was keeping back William, who had materialized his huge demonic sword.

"That is one big and ugly sword," Herb said from the sidelines.

"Not as ugly as this clone's excuses for fighting moves!" Sissi said as she back flipped to dodge a kick that the Aelita clone had aimed at her. "Is that all? I've seen better from toddlers! No offense, Mrs. Einstein."

"Some taken," Aelita called out. "and please be careful, that's still kind of my body!"

"No promises," she teased and jumped out of the way of the Clone Aelita's lightning shot.

"You do that," I said, "and I'll do my thing here with the mainframe." I jumped into the chair, and put on the headset. "You're doing good, guys," I said through the headset, "but we won't be able to hold it out here much longer."

=== CODE LYOKO===

"Neither will we, you know!" Yumi called out irritably into the sky of Lyoko as she dodged a laser blast from a Tarantula.

"Give Jeremy a break," Ulrich said. "I'd like to see you fill his shoes."

"Same here, Ulrich," Yumi shot back. "I seriously doubt you could do better than me."

"Alright, you two," I called to them from outside the supercomputer. "You'd better knock it off before I go in there myself and make you. You really don't want to mess with me, so keep your heads out of the clouds and in the game or we're all done for!"

As I said this, another Hornet shot at Ulrich, but he deflected it with his sword and sent it back to the Hornet, which exploded by its own laser.

"Roger that, Einstein," Ulrich grinned as he dashed forward at a Tarantula. "Super Sprint!" His speed had just increased by three times, and before the monster had any time to react, Ulrich's sword went right through its mule shaped head. Ulrich stopped in his tracks the instant after the monster exploded.

"We're finally getting through the lines, Jeremy," Ulrich said, taking a minute to pause and replenish his energy."How are things on your end?"

"Odd's doing his best by keeping William at bay," I replied, "and Sissi's doing wonders at keeping Aelita's clone distracted. How many of XANA's monsters are there left?"

Yumi scanned the area of the tower, looking for any monsters that may have been hiding. "I'm only seeing about half a dozen Kankerlats, a Hornet, two Creepers, and a Tarantula."

"You've each got about 60 of your life points left," I said, looking at the display. You must make sure that at least one of you is able to make it to the tower to deactivate it."

"Speaking of which," Yumi asked, "how is it possible that we can deactivate these towers again?"

"Anyone who has had contact with but isn't possessed by XANA can deactivate towers," Aelita replied. "As long as they know the code to deactivate the towers and the security system accepts their virtual signatures, then they can deactivate them."

"That sounds good enough for me," Ulrich said, deflecting another laser blast. "Let's do this already,"

"No objections here," Yumi said, and threw one of her fans at the swarm of monsters.

It shredded through two of the Kankerlats to ribbons before they detonated and disappeared. Ulrich ran forward at the Creepers, who both started firing at him. Fortunately, he was too fast for them, and he sliced them both open without a problem. They wailed before they blew up, and the Hornet turned around in the air to fire at him. He caught it out of the corner of his eye, but was too late to dodge, and he got stung in his right arm. He cried out as the blast hit him, and he stumbled back.

"Watch out, Ulrich!" I shouted. "That sting just cost you another 20 life points! You're down to your last 30 points now! If you fall now, Yumi's gonna face those monsters all on her own, and if she fails, no one can deactivate the tower!"

"Don't remind me, Einstein!" he shot back, and thrust one of his swords at the Hornet. Powered by Ulrich's speed, the sword impaled the insectoid monster, which exploded as soon as the sword went through it. He then dashed towards Yumi, who had just taken out another Kankerlat and managed to take out the last three Kankerlats with both of his swords.

"Nine down," he grinned, looking at the Tarantula, "and one to go."

Just then, everyone's feelings were completely altered by a familiar sound on Lyoko, and a familiar sign on my radar.

"It can't be!" I shouted. "Why now?"

"What can't be?" Ulrich asked, but then saw Yumi pointing up.

"That can't be!" Yumi shouted. When Ulrich looked where she had pointed, he knew what she was talking about.

Descending from the ceiling of Sector Five, in all of its slimy glory, was the Schyphozoa. As it lowered itself closer to the ground, its translucent tentacles shot out at Ulrich and Yumi. Ulrich was able to dodge it, but Yumi was caught in its physical and telekinetic grip.

"Why is this thing after Yumi?" Ulrich asked. "It never tried to hurt her before, why would it do it now?"

Just then, I realized what was happening, and I gasped in shock.

"XANA is trying to turn us into his slaves."

"What?" Aelita gasped.

"How can that be?" Ulrich asked. He sounded just as shocked as Aelita and I were.

"The same way that he created this Aelita clone," I responded. "This must be what XANA's been going for all this time. No wonder he didn't attack us on Earth. Why would he damage his potential new servants? This is what he tried to do with Aelita! He's not just satisfied with a robot army that he can bring to Earth, he now wants humans under his control!"

Ulrich brandished his swords at the monster in front of him. "Not if I have anything to say about it. I'd rather fall into the Digital Sea than be a slave to anyone or anything like XANA."

"Be careful, Ulrich!" I shouted. "You don't have a lot of life points left, and the Schyphozoa is now draining more than just Yumi's!"

"I'm on it!" Ulrich shouted, and dashed at the Tarantula, and slashed its lasers away before they could hit him. He then jumped behind the monster and slashed its legs out from under it, and thrust both of his swords through its torso. It gave a great shriek and a groan before it detonated, blowing chucks of its body at the Schyphozoa, who seemed to Ulrich to hesitate for a moment.

In that instant, Ulrich struck. He jumped at the jellyfish-like monster, and slashed all of its tentacles with both of his swords, catching Yumi when she fell. It seemed to hiss at him, but Ulrich grinned as he landed and helped Yumi to her feet.

"That's what you get for messing with my friends," he taunted.

The monster gave one last look at him and Yumi, and then it floated away. Ulrich grinned, and herded himself and Yumi into the tower. Ulrich stepped forward to the platform, but Yumi shrugged him off.

"I can do this, Ulrich," she said. "No need to worry."

"Whatever you say," Ulrich grinned. "You deserve it."

Yumi smiled and ascended to the upper level. As she landed, the screen appeared before her. She placed her hand on it, and entered in the code.

YUMI

CODE: LYOKO

The screens around her fell away to the bottom of the tower, and she smiled.

=== CODE LYOKO===

Back in our world, the Aelita clone had backed Sissi into a corner and was just about to do her in, when it suddenly disintegrated before our very eyes. William howled in anger, and he was about to lunge at us before he disappeared as well. We all stopped for a moment, and breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Well," I said, "I'm glad that's all over."

I looked around, and I saw that Odd, Sissi, and Nicolas were panting heavily, but happy with the threat out of the way. I looked at Aelita in my pocket, and my eyes widened in surprise. She started giving off a bright pink glow, and she looked at herself with a confused expression.

"Jeremy?" She looked up at me. "What's happening?"

"Take a look over there," I said, and took her out of my pocket, setting her on the ground. She looked back up at me, almost craning her neck as she gazed up at me, since I no doubt towered over her.

"What am I looking at?" she asked.

"That," I pointed, and she looked where the Aelita clone and William once stood. The particles were still in the air, and were rapidly drifting towards me and Aelita. However, the particles condensed in a small cloud around Aelita's body, and the cloud glowed with a bright light before its shape got taller. It continued growing and growing before my eyes, and it eventually assumed a more human shape as it reached the end of its growth. I had to shield my eyes as the cloud grew, but the light soon faded, and when I opened my eyes, Aelita stood before me, her proper height restored.

"Aelita," I breathed happily. "You're back to normal!"

"I am," she laughed, looking at herself. She then leaned forward and, taking her hand in mine, hugged me tightly. "Thank you for everything, Jeremy."

I smiled and hugged her back. "Think nothing of it. It's good to have you back."

As we parted, I noticed that Herb sat hunched in a corner, his limbs curled into a fetal position, and his eyes blank.

"This isn't…" he stuttered. "I didn't want… this wasn't supposed to be happening…"

"Nothing ever goes the way we want it," I said. "It goes the way that it goes."

"I wish I could just forget it all," he said. "I don't care about anything else now, I just want to forget."

"Oh, you will, Herb Pichon," Aelita and I smiled as I took my place in the chair again. "You will." I then typed the sequence that would ensure what I said would be true and then hit the large enter key. Herb looked up into a blinding light that came from the supercomputer. He looked at me and I spoke only five words.

"Return to the past, now."

===CODE LYOKO===

We all sat at our lunch table, keeping our distance form Herb, Sissi, and Nicolas.

"So what about that video and those pictures that Sissi made?" Ulrich asked. "What are you going to do about them?"

"They've never been made," I replied. "The return to the past did not just wipe out their memories, it wiped out everything."

"That's a relief," Odd sighed. "Man, this day was really one for the crazy day books."

"Well," Aelita said, "When you're a Lyoko Warrior, this is pretty much the norm."

"Nothing more," I smiled, grinning at Aelita, "and nothing less."

THE END

* * *

**A/N: Who'd have believe that I'd write those words only three moths after it's first chapter was posted? This is now my fourth complete story (not counting my two one-shots)! This is thanks to all of you for supporting me all along the way!**

**BTW, the Easter Eggs for the chapters 2 and 3 are as follows:**

**CH 2 - "Star Blasters" is based on "Star Blazers", which is the English name for the old Japanese movie "Super Space Battleship Yamato". Jeremy's shirt is the shirt that he wears in Code Lyoko Evolution (I thought it would be a good idea). Also, there is a reference to "Dr. Shrank's Hospital of Horrors", which is a show watched by the majority of Kadic in the cartoon. (NO ONE seemed to get the last one.)**

**CH 3 - "12 HOURS?!" was a line from the Mucinex commercials when the Mucus people get kicked out of people's sinus cavities. Ijust thought it was something Odd would say, since it's kind of a bad joke. Also, the gang could deactivate towers in Evolution since they, apart from William, had part of XANA's code in them. However, I had another explanation in this, as you have read.  
**

**Hope you enjoyed this and please wait diligently for my next updates!**

**-JeremyX signing off!**


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